Police Brutality
by August Trinity
Summary: A shady figure in the shape of a predatory Siberian Tiger arrives in town during the final stages of the savage outbreak in Zootopia. He buys a property in Capitol City for no apparent reason, and advertises his business to almost exclusively prey. This is strange in the eyes of Judy Hopps, and with the help of Officer Nick Wilde, she will get to the bottom of this new development.
1. Parking Duty on Weselton Way

Police Brutality

Chapter 1

Zootopia: a gleaming city, but not a city like any you've heard of. Imagine a world where humans simply never existed, never evolved into the world. Imagine a different species had to evolve and become the highly intelligent beings of the planet. Actually, imagine that _all_ other species evolved to be so highly intelligent. That is the world of Zootopia. Many generations before, animals lived in fear. Predators hunted pray, and every day was a fight to survive. But one day, a few choice animals had a vision. A vision of a world where all animals coexist in peace and harmony, and any animal can aspire to be anything. And thus, the city of Zootopia was born. The very first city to be the center of peace for predators and prey alike, though the lives of animals were still dominated by the limits set by a social structure not unlike our own. That is, until one little bunny came along and changed it for everyone.

Judy Hopps, born and raised in her home town of Bunnyburrow, had always been different. She always wanted to make the world a better place, and so she did. With devotion, high spirits, and hard work, she was accepted into the Zootopia Police Academy, and graduated with honors at the top of her class, becoming the Zootopia Police Department's very first rabbit officer, but her happy ending was yet to come. The chief of police, Chief Bogo, was quite unhappy with her employment, and set her up for failure by assigning her a virtually impossible case. Beyond all expectations, this case led to her discovery of a savage outbreak in Zootopia, where it seemed the predatory species of the world were reverting back to their primal state and attacking other citizens of the world.

Officer Hopps, with the help of her new and good friend, the sly fox Nick Wilde, soon uncovered a vast scheme by Assistant Mayor Bellwether to make the world dominantly prey, and make all predators seem like nothing more than animals. With the case solved, and all criminals in captivity, all was well in the city, and Nick was even granted a job as Judy's partner under the ZPD. But this is the story you already likely know. This is not the story I am here to tell. For in the midst of the savage outbreak, a mysterious figure appeared in Zootopia, buying a property in Capitol City. A figure in the shape of a predatory Siberian Tiger, advertising his business to almost exclusively prey. That is where our story begins.

All was well in the city of Zootopia as many animals prepared to begin their week. Elephants prepared to head off to the ice cream shop, and the hamsters all made their way to the same building to do the office work no other animals had the patience for. And in it all, a little cotton tail rabbit dawned her ZPD uniform and headed out of her apartment to her assigned car. Waiting in the car for Judy was her partner in justice, Officer Nick Wilde, also her best friend and natural enemy.

"Hey Carrots, do you think Bogo will ever let us start work _after_ the sun comes up?" asked Nick, as Judy hopped into the driver's seat

"Not likely, but it isn't that early," she replied, buckling herself in

With a shared laugh, they pulled out of the parking lot and made their way to the Zootopia Police Department. The morning was normal in HQ. Benjamin Clawhauser sitting at the front desk, eating a bowl of Lucky Chomps alongside a dozen chocolate Doughnuts, the usual stuff. The two friends simply passed it all by and made their way to roll call, to get their assignments for the day. They arrived only a few moments before Chief Bogo, so they had no chance to chat before the day's activities began.

"Alright, everyone in your seats," commanded Bogo, and without a moment's hesitation, each and every officer sat down quietly, "Thanks to two of our officers whose names I will not say because, frankly, I don't care, all missing mammal cases have been solved, so until another major crime has been committed, it will be quite easy going for all of us"

Nick couldn't help but chuckle at Chief Bogo's words. Almost the same thing every morning; there was always something he didn't care to say. The response by all of the other officers save for Judy was much less calm. They were all going wild over the news of their jobs being that much easier since the solving of the missing mammal cases just one week prior.

"Our assignments for the day are fairly simple," Bogo continued, silencing the room, "But before I hand those out, I should say we have been receiving numerous complaints about a new business on Weselton Way. The owner is evidently refusing business to most predators, but we are not going to put priority on those complaints because every business in Zootopia by law reserves the right to refuse business to anyone, but you should keep an eye out. Most of the complaints we are receiving aren't from the nicest of people"

This warning troubled Judy. She had just resolved a crisis of derogation against the predatory species of the world, and yet someone was still excluding them from business? That information didn't sit well with the little bunny.

"Alright, back to assignments. There's only one, really, and that is city patrol. Keep your ears to the ground, report anything suspicious, the usual. Hopps, Wilde, I'd like to see you in my office. Everyone else, get to work," Bogo finished, before walking out of the roll call room

"Oh boy, he must have found it," Nick whispered to himself, inaudible to anyone accept a certain bunny with excellent hearing

"Found what?" she asked

"Nothing!" he quickly replied, though his nerves were obvious

Together, the three animals wandered down another hall and into Chief Bogo's office, where they each took their respective seats. Nick seemed to be getting more nervous by the second, though he was doing a good job at hiding it.

"I have a special assignment for you two, but I need you to keep it under wraps," said Bogo

"Anything you need, Sir," Judy replied, very formally

"Parking duty," stated the buffalo, very bluntly

Judy let out an exasperated sigh, clearly frustrated by the given job. Nick, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank goodness!" He exclaimed

"What?" Bogo asked, clearly confused

"Oh, uh…I was afraid there were more missing mammals or something…I was just worried," Nick lied, somehow managing to fool the oblivious Chief

"Not at all. I want you on Parking Duty, but I want you to stay on Weselton Way, and see if you can find anything strange. I don't like what I'm hearing about that new business," Bogo explained

"Oh, alright. Not a problem, Chief," Judy replied enthusiastically

"Report back at the end of your shift, and give me any information you have," he commanded, before turning his attention to the files on his desk

"Yes sir," Judy said

Together, Nick and Judy left the room and made their way back out into the front room. Almost as soon as they were passing the front desk, a furious roar was heard from the office of Chief Bogo.

"Who on earth put this thing in my desk?!" Bogo shouted for the whole police department to hear

"Run! Go, go, go!" Nick exclaimed, laughing as he quickly ushered Judy out to their car

They were already driving away before Judy had time to ask, "What did you do?"

"I snuck a paw zapper in the bottom drawer of his desk," He replied, a wide smile on his face

After a moment of contemplating this action, they both burst out in uncontrolled laughter. Surely, it would be a long night for them if Bogo discovered the culprit, but they didn't care. To them, all was well, and it was just a good laugh. They then began their drive to the site of their "Parking Duty."

 **So, what do you all think of the first chapter? I know it's short, but I wanted to give it an easy-to-follow starting point. Nothing too knew, just the kickstarter of what I hope to be a good story. Leave a review, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	2. Sharp Fitness & Aikido

**This is the basic formula of how I write fanfictions. An Author's Note at the beginning and end of each chapter, usually addressing reviews in the beginning and speaking about anything else in the end. I have two reviews currently on the first chapter. One of which mentioned some punctuation errors, and I searched through and corrected every error I could find, but none were related to punctuation. If you would be so kind as to PM me and point them out, I would be very grateful. And for the other review, which talked about my KFP fanfiction, I will say that yes, that is quite the good summary of what my quality of writing was back then. I do hope that my writing in this story is a bit easier to follow. With that said, enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 2

The drive to Weselton Way was quiet, and uneventful. The duo of Officer Wilde and Officer Hopps arrived not long after departing, and parked in a free spot by a parking meter. Nick made sure they had plenty of time on the meter before they even thought of leaving the car. It was far too often when the very honest Judy would write herself a ticket if their parking meter ran out of time. As the two friends stepped away from the car, Nick tightened his tie and made sure all of his items were in order before they began walking down the street together, watching for any expired parking meters. Surprisingly enough, Judy wasn't focused on the meters at all. She kept scanning the buildings on either side of the road with a watchful eye, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"You know, in hindsight I think it would've been a good idea to have gotten the street address for this place," Nick joked

"Or at least the name of the place," Judy replied as they stopped at an expired meter

They stood in silence while Judy wrote up the ticket for the car. Nick simply leaned against the meter, idly looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Across the street, two fairly well built cheetah boys were walking by with less than happy looks on their faces. One of them was wearing Sheep White brand grey flannel and jeans, while the other was wearing basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

"What a jerk. We're citizens of this city too. He can't just throw us out like that," one of them said, causing the ears of Officer Hopps to perk up.

"The right to refuse service. Try the right to be racist!" The other replied

Judy quickly turned to try and find the source of the voices, soon spotting the two large cheetahs.

"Sounds like someone was just refused service," Judy stated

"Sounds like traffic to me. Call it what you will," Nick replied with a chuckle

"No!" Judy exclaimed, backhanding Nick's arm and pointing to the two large cats, "Them"

"Well, let's investigate, detective," Nick mocked in a TV Reporter voice

Judy couldn't help but giggle as she led Nick over to a crosswalk and across the street to where the two cheetahs had stopped and began resting against the brick wall beside a smoothie shop. Being very procedural, Judy had her badge out to show as they approached the boys who couldn't have been older than 19. Of course, they immediately took notice and seemed nervous.

"Judy Hopps, ZPD. How are you?" She asked in a very sweet tone

"Uh…fine. Can we help you?" replied the one in the flannel

"Funny you should ask," Inquired Nick, "but we are looking in to a nearby business which has been denying business to a lot of people. We couldn't help overhearing your conversation and were wondering if you had any information you could give us"

"Well, the business is just down the road. It's a fitness gym, which also offers lessons in something called Aikido, whatever that is," the cheetah in basketball shorts replied

"Some kind of fighting class. We wanted to get a membership, cause the price was amazing, but the guy who runs the place won't let hardly any predators in," the other added

Judy was fast at work writing all of the given information down on her little notepad.

"What can you tell us about him?" Judy asked

"Well, he's a Siberian Tiger who drives up from Tundra Town every morning," the fully dressed one replied

"How do you know that?" Nick asked

"There's always snow on his car," the other cheetah replied

"Can I get your names, in case we have any more questions?" requested Judy

"Yeah, Jeff Reynold, and this is my brother Donny," the cheetah in the flannel replied

Judy quickly wrote down that last bit of information before saying, "Thank you so much. We'll see what we can do to get all of this cleared up"

Without another word, Nick and Judy walked off down the road in the direction the Reynold Brothers had directed. It wasn't long before they came across a medium sized property constructed of bricks. It wasn't very decorated on the outside, and the only view inside was a single glass panel beside the door, both of which had the words Sharp Fitness & Aikido written in gold letters with blue cores. There was a sign posted on the door as well which said "Open for business! Visitors Welcome!"

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say this is the place. What do you think, carrots?" Nick asked

"Well, it says visitors welcome, so let's go take a look," she replied before leading the fox inside

The gym was strange. It wasn't like anything Judy or Nick had expected going in. Instead of some kind of boxing ring for the fighting class, there were thick foam sparring matt's laid across half of the floor. On most of the other half, there was standard gym equipment. Treadmills, weights of all kinds, and an assortment of animals, mostly prey, going about their exercise routines, though some of them had stopped to look at the two ZPD officers who had entered.

"Can I help you, officers?" a deep voice with a tribal accent sounded from the sparring matt's

When the two visitors looked, they found a Siberian Tiger, about average height but a bit of a thinner body type, approaching them. He was wearing professional brand black boxing shorts without a shirt. He had a strange red ribbon tied around his waist where the shorts ended, and the slack of the ribbon tangled off his right hip. His stripe patterns were standard, except for on his face. One stripe move over his chin, and two others on either side of his face connected with the corners of his mouth and his cheek just below the eyes.

"We're looking for the owner," Nick said

"Well, you found him. What can I do you for?" he asked

"Well, we at the ZPD have been receiving many complaints about you refusing business to a very specific type of people, namely medium sized to larger predators," explained Judy

The tiger sighed, "As a business owner and citizen of Zootopia, I am allowed by law to reserve the right to refuse service to anyone"

"By law, yes, but on what grounds do you refuse service?" Nick asked

"That is information I am not required to give. Talk to your people, bring me a warrant for investigation, and I will answer any and all questions you have. But good luck getting through Bogo," he replied matter-of-factly

His words immediately brought Nick to attention, but before he could speak, the tiger spoke again, "Now, if you would like to stay and observe, you are welcome, but if you'll excuse me, I have a class to teach"

"That's alright, we'll be going now. Thank you for your time," Judy replied

With a nod of thanks, the tiger turned and walked back over to the group of animals on the sparring matt's. Judy and Nick then left the gym, admittedly with fewer answers than they would've liked. As the sun was beginning to set in the distance, the duo decided to return to their car and head back to the Police Department. While driving, Judy couldn't help but notice a very focused and confused expression on Nick's face.

"What is it, Nick?" asked Judy

"How does he know Chief Bogo?"

"What?" she asked

"He said 'good luck getting through Bogo'" Nick clarified

"The identity of the Zootopia Chief of Police isn't secret," she replied

"A name is one thing, but personally knowing how stubborn he can be?" he asked

Judy was silent for a moment as she pulled into the Department parking lot. Near as she could figure, Nick was right. This was something important to report. Together, they walked in and went straight to Chief Bogo's office. The door was open, so they walked in to find the chief still buried in files. Judy cleared her throat to signal that they were in the room, causing Bogo to put down his file and make eye contact.

"Close the door and take a seat," he said, and without hesitation they complied, "What did you discover?"

"Well, the guy running the shop is quite the interesting one," Nick said

"Sir, I think we should file for an investigation," Judy added in a much more serious tone, causing Bogo to go completely wide eyed in shock

"Are you kidding me, Hopps? What grounds do you have to file for an investigation?!" He asked

"Sir, he was able to state our laws word for word, as if he were reading them from a book. He knows how our procedures go, and there wasn't a thing I could say that he couldn't throw back," Judy explained

"So he's brushed up on our laws and regulations. What is so suspicious about that?"

"He said your name, Chief. He talked about you as if he knew how you are," Nick replied

"So he knows who I am, so he's heard a few rumors about my personality, or seen a few news castings. None of this is enough information to warrant an investigation of a Zootopian citizen. I won't file for a search warrant based on a bad feeling you get in your cotton puff tail," Bogo said, returning to his brutal self

"But sir-"

"No, Hopps. Your shifts are over, you're both off duty for the night,"

Without further words, the two officers were dismissed. In silence, Nick drove Judy home before making his way back to his own apartment. But that was not the only activity to end the night, for a car driven by a Siberian Tiger was then crossing the border into Tundra Town. He drove himself home to his small one story house, and as he entered and closed the door behind him, he glanced around at the entryway decorations. A dresser stood in the hallway, topped with picture frames containing photos of three animals. Some were of only one, and some contained all three. They were pictures of that same tiger, standing beside another Siberian tiger, clearly female, and in front of them stood a cub with the same facial stripes as the male, but the same green eye color as the female.

The tiger's eyes filled with sadness as he walked down the hallway and into his bedroom. He didn't even bother changing out of his clothes before collapsing into the bed and drifting slowly off to a dreamless sleep, alone in the house meant for three.

 **Some character stories are coming together, aren't they? Sorry, it may not be daily updates like I prefer to do, but school is a killer. Leave a review, and see if you can guess just who this mystery character might be, and tell me how I did in general on this chapter. Thanks for reading, and have a nice night!**


	3. Code of Ethics

**Back again, everyone! So, my punctuation errors were pointed out to me, and I will try to get better with it, I promise. Also, someone mentioned that my chapters were too short, and my explanation is that I'm in school so time is short, so if you wanted longer chapters, it would be longer intervals between updates. When time becomes more plentiful in a few weeks, chapters will be longer and I will update more quickly. Just about every issue I have on here has some rational explanation, so if you see something wrong or don't like something, please let me know via review or P.M. and I will see what I can do, as I am here on fanfiction to improve my writing skill before I begin to attempt to make a living off of my books. Without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 3

The sun rose the next morning, sending beautiful rays of sunshine cascading across the city. Tuesday was beginning, and so the animals of Zootopia were already on their way to work. Driving in from Tundra Town, a Siberian Tiger made his way to his gym. The yet unnamed predator seemed distant as he drove, looking around the city the same way an elderly mammal would as they perused old memories. As he passed the park, he couldn't help but smile. The children playing together, all without a care in the world while their parents socialized without a care in the world. Husbands and wives watched with smiles as their kids played, safe from any danger. The sight filled him with delight, but it soon faded when the park was no longer in sight. Without another sideways glance, he continued his drive until reaching the gym. He parked in the spot closest to the door, and made sure his keys were in hand before even exiting the vehicle. When he was ready, he stepped out and made his way to the door, taking a few moments to unlock it. He was about to walk in when a voice behind him, sweet and feminine, cleared its throat. He sighed with slight frustration at recognizing the voice.

"Officer Hopps, I believe you are supposed to be on duty right now," he said, his tribal accent holding strong as he turned around to find the little rabbit officer dressed in uniform, "And I highly doubt Bogo would send you back here."

"We're on parking duty again, and Nick is covering the area. I didn't come to ask any more questions, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for interrogating you like I did yesterday. I was out of place," Judy replied, her ears falling low in shame

"Officer Hopps, I appreciate what you are doing for the people. What you did, finding all those predators and returning them home. Making the city feel safe again, that was an amazing feet. I know how it looks, after all of that, only taking on prey and smaller predators as my students, but until I prove myself untrustworthy, you will have to trust that there is a reason for refusing service to those who have complained to you," he said, before turning and walking into the gym.

Judy was quickly behind him, "Then if you don't mind, I'd like to stay and observe. Not as a cop, but as a person this time. Would that be alright, Mr….?"

"Fanger. Ark Fanger, and that is perfectly alright. I'll go get changed, and bring you a chair," he replied, before disappearing through a door in the back.

While he was gone, Judy took a better look at her surroundings. The foam sparring matt's which served as the Aikido training area were soft and squishy to the touch; obviously to ensure anyone taken down wasn't injured. On the other side of the gym, there was a line of treadmills and other running machines along the wall. Further away from the wall, there were Yoga matt's and balls, and further into the gym, Judy could see a large collection of weight lifting equipment. All of these items came in all ranges of size, for what the bunny assumed was for all sizes of mammal. At the back of the gym, near the right corner, were two doors. Each had a symbol on it for gender, either male or female, and a large sign above which said either "Men's" or "Women's Locker Room." In the left corner, there was a small office. There was a window which gave a full view inside showing a desk, computer, and an assortment of papers. Above the window, hanging high on the wall, was an object unlike anything Judy had ever seen before.

She walked over to get a closer view, and inspect every detail of it. It was some sort of spear, with a brown wooden handle seemingly carved by hand. On one end, there was a larger curved blade which looked to be made of hand forged steal, as the hammer details and weathering were obvious to the eye. On the other end, there was a smaller blade with similar details curved in the same direction. It was a beautiful weapon, hung far out of reach from anyone smaller than a rhino, and looked old yet well kept.

"That weapon belonged to my great grandfather," Ark said, startling the focused rabbit and causing her to jump back.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry," She hastily replied, gathering herself.

"Don't be. It's there to be seen," he said, tying the red ribbon around his waist and letting the slack dangle off his right hip.

"What's it for?" the curious bunny asked.

"Well, that spear is a hunting weapon. My great grandfather hand forged it not long after animals began to industrialize. He used it to hunt prey for food," Ark explained, making Judy feel a little uneasy, "Now, it stands as a reminder of a time long ago. I look at it every day to remind myself that animals should never again take each other's lives."

A look of realization overtook Judy's face, "that's why you only train prey!"

Ark nodded. "Sometimes, a situation calls for more ability than some might have. I want to make sure that those situations never happen by making sure the people have those skills."

Judy instantly felt less suspicious of this tiger than before. In fact, she felt even worse about the way she had treated him.

"Well, I think what you are trying to do here is amazing. I can't wait to see what you are teaching them," Judy said.

"I look forward to it. I set your chair up near the sparring matt's over there," Ark said, pointing to the chair set up a few meters away from the front door, "It's time to open up, so if you'd like to take your place, my class starts in ten."

Judy nodded and together, they walked back to the front of the store. She took her seat while Ark opened the front door. Almost immediately, eleven or twelve people entered. Seven of them were carrying duffel bags, and walked straight back into their respective locker rooms. A few others went straight to the exercise equipment, while the rest stayed by the door and waited to speak to Ark. The three waiting to speak to him were all predators. One of them was a younger otter, maybe nineteen or twenty. The other two were wolves, but didn't look related to each other at all, but they were both wearing basketball shorts and grey T-Shirts.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" Ark asked.

"We were interested in a gym membership," one of the wolves replied.

"Are all of you together?"

"I'm not with them," the otter spoke up, "But I am interested in enrolling in your Aikido class."

"Alright, well I'll grab you a chair from the back and you'll be observing my morning class with Officer Hopps. If you like what you see, I'll get you the paperwork and we'll see about getting you enrolled. As for you two, you can go ahead and get started on some of the gym equipment. If everything checks out, I'll get you your paperwork after my morning class as well," he replied, before walking off to the back.

Both of the wolves immediately high-fived before jogging straight back to the weight lifting equipment, laughing the whole way. This troubled Judy; Ark was making such a big deal about not allowing predators in, yet here were two wolves immediately allowed in without any questions asked. A few minutes later, those who had disappeared into the locker rooms emerged wearing different varieties of exercise clothes, soon followed by Ark who was carrying another chair. He set the chair beside Judy's, and the unoccupied seat was soon taken by the young otter. Ark then joined his class on the matt's. They were all standing with equal spacing between them.

"Alright everyone, time to begin. Let's make the class look good today, seeing as we have two spectators here, including ZPD's own Judy Hopps," Ark said, grabbing the attention of all seven students, "Over the past week, you've all been learning and memorizing the ideals of Aikido. Now, we begin the more physical side of things. Kacey, please step forward."

From the small group of students, a young goat emerged. It was a boy, maybe twenty-three, who was smaller than your average goa, standing only a little taller than Nick would. He stepped up to Ark looking a little confused, and nervous.

"When confronted by an enemy, they will almost always be bigger than you, but that doesn't have to be a disadvantage. Kacey, I'm going to attack you. I will go slow, and won't hurt you, but I want you to do what you must to defend yourself. Remember what we've learned," Ark said, before falling silent.

The entire training area was still and quiet. Judy watched closely at every move that was made, which at present was none. From the weight lifting area to her right, she heard a chuckle. In a glance, she caught sight of the two wolves who had entered with the otter. They were both sitting on the dumbbell seats, resting their arms and watching the training area with amused grins. Suddenly, Ark moved. His right arm moved from its still point at his side to being placed forcefully on the shoulder of the goat. After a moment of staying in that position, Kacey sent a jab forward and caught Ark in the abs. He quickly stepped back, leaving Kacey with a smile on his face, but in Arks eyes was disappointment.

"Good power in the punch, but wrong. What did we learn day one?" Ark asked out to the class.

"Aikido is for defense, never attack. Only do what is necessary to protect," they all said in unison.

From the weight lifting area, two familiar wolves burst out into laughter. Some of the class looked angry and frustrated, while others looked embarrassed. Ark had a smile cracked in the corner of his mouth, invisible to the wolves since his back was to them. It disappeared as he began to turn to them.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?"

"What kind of martial arts class is this? Learn to fight and refuse to fight? What is the point in that?" One of the wolves asked, laughing the whole way through.

"Yeah, if someone attacks you, you pound their ass into the ground," the other said, backing up his friend.

Ark took a few steps towards them, "Beat them up, and prove your strength. Force their respect and let them know you're better. Is that right?"

"Exactly!" the second wolf exclaimed.

"Well, those are the ideals of the world. Those are the ideals of brutes. Those are not the ideals of this gym, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he replied, motioning them towards the door.

The two wolves were flabbergasted, "Are you serious, bro? You said we were welcome-"

"I said that if everything checked out, I'd get you your paperwork. But everything doesn't check out, so I will enact my right to refuse you business," Ark interrupted.

The first wolf seemed to be looking for any reason to say he couldn't make them leave like that. He went so far as to look directly at Judy and say he couldn't do what he was doing.

"Every licensed Zootopian business has the right to refuse service to anyone, so long as they have probable cause, which Mr. Fanger currently has," she replied.

Both wolves had their maws hanging agape. With every second that passed, their eyes and facial expressions seemed to fill with more anger and frustration. By this time, all of the people currently occupying the gym were transfixed on the scenario playing out. In a single moment, both wolves stood from their seats and got in Ark's face, though they were a bit shorter.

"Well we ain't leavin, buddy. You got a problem with that, then face us like a predator," the second wolf said.

Judy immediately stood from her chair and rushed over, ready to intervene. She was stopped, however, by a raised hand from a Siberian tiger.

"It's alright, Officer. I'm perfectly capable of escorting these two out."

Quickly and forcefully, Ark grabbed the two wolves by their upper arms and began pulling them towards the door. He had little trouble as they struggled against him, neither of them able to break his grip. As they got closer to the exit, the first wolf decided to take the initiative. Swinging his free arm, he aimed to give the strong tiger a hook to the jaw, but with amazing speed, Ark weaved under the fist and got both of them in an arm lock from behind. Both of the wolves had their faces contorting as he forced them forward and out the door. Neither of them even tried to come back inside; only walked away looking defeated and embarrassed.

"Those, Ms. Hopps, are the kinds of people to whom I refuse business. My gym has rules, guidelines, and a code of ethics which is specified in the contract. It just seems that those who do not comply with that code are more often larger predators," Ark explained to the wide-eyed bunny.

"Well," she replied, "I've seen plenty. Thank you for allowing me to stay and watch."

The white tiger nodded in reply, before returning to his class full of very impressed students. Satisfied with what she had seen and learned of this new face in the city, Judy took her leave, signaling her partner on the radio to come pick her up. Nick was there a few minutes later, rolling up the curb with his sunglasses on, trying to look as cool as possible.

"Took you long enough," he said, as she hopped in the car.

"I'm sorry, but the place was…interesting. But everything checks out in there. Ark has good reason for doing what he does," Judy replied, buckling in.

"Who?"

"The owner. His name is Ark Fanger," she said.

"Whatever you say, Carrots," replied nick as he pulled back onto the road, "So, you wanna grab a Jumbo Juice before we switch out for patrol duty?"

"Sure, that sounds great"

 **My longest chapter thus far, I believe. And I also believe the punctuation errors are much less this time, so that's good! Anyone catch my Jumbo Juice Easter Egg? Review and say if you know what it was meant for (Yes, I know there was an existing smoothie place in the movie, but I zoomed in and found that it was all vegie smoothies which you could add certain fruit things into). Also, Ark Fanger's accent, or how I imagine it anyways, is a lot like the accent of the tribal people from the movie "Whale Rider." As far as I know, it's a New Zealand accent, but don't quote me on that. Well, review and tell me your thoughts on the chapter! Constructive criticism is welcome. I also appreciate suggestions as to how I can more accurately portray the personalities of the Zootopia characters. That's all for now, so I'll see you all next time!**


	4. Quiet Fury

**Back again! First off, I got a few really nice reviews, one in particular from someone who I shall not mention because frankly, I don't care (tee hee) I'm joking, but I'm not going to mention their name for privacy reasons. The review is obvious in the review section. This person said that this fanfic is well written, accurate, and one of the best they had read so far for Zootopia (not to toot my own horn). I'd like to say thank you, and I hope I continue to do as well as I'm evidently doing. As for the other review, yes, the Easter Egg was Jamba Juice. In the world of Zootopia, pretty much everything we have has its own version. Lucky Charms is Lucky Chomps, the movie Tangled is Wrangled, and Shakira is Gazelle. Jumbo Juice is my version of Jamba Juice. Also, in chapter 1, I threw in a specific Disney Easter Egg which was also partly featured in the movie. It is connected to Frozen, and anyone who finds it will have my respect. That's all in terms of reviews, more general information will be found after the chapter. Enjoy!**

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, back at the Zootopia police department, a grey and black female Cheetah was sitting in one of the far back rooms viewing a wall of security monitors. As the Police Department wasn't extremely large, only a few of the monitors were dedicated to the building. Most of them, however, were views of the in-car cameras which were on each and every one of the police cars and bikes. There were two in each: one facing forward on the car, and the other facing in the car. The job of the cheetah was to ensure the safety of the officers. If a car was attacked, the ZPD would know and be able to aid the endangered officers. On the side, her job was also to ensure that all officers, while on duty, were doing their job and not MIA. Upon realizing that one of the vehicles was missing an officer who had, in fact, clocked in that morning, she immediately wrote a small report to be sent to Chief Bogo. Another report was sent as soon as this MIA Officer returned to her vehicle, greeted by Officer Wilde who knew she was gone and knew where she was the entire time.

Nick and Judy, after grabbing their respective smoothies, switched out with Francine to go on traffic patrol for the remainder of the slow and uneventful day. There was the occasional speeding car and the more frequent jaywalking student who just got out of class. Judy did most of the ticket signing and scolding, since Nick had done all of it during their shift on parking duty. At one point, he even took a short nap, though he was woken not long after falling asleep by Judy.

"No sleeping on the job, Nick. Chief will have our necks," she explained.

"I'm sleeping on the job. I'm sleeping on the chair," Nick joked, causing himself to laugh while Judy rolled her eyes at the stupid joke.

She couldn't help but crack a smile, however, as his antics had a strange way of making her happy. By the end of the shift, the two partners had done a good amount of work, though they were most definitely low on their ticket count compared to what they normally do, especially when given parking duty. Together they returned to HQ to clock out for the day, but just as they were doing so, Chief Bogo emerged from his office.

"Hopps, my office, now," he said forcefully, before disappearing back into the room form which he came.

Judy and Nick exchanged a confused and worried glance before she jogged off to follow him. Bogo was waiting by the door, and closed it as soon as she entered, but they were not the only two in the room. A female cheetah was standing in a corner to the right of the desk, silent as an owl and standing with her hands behind her back.

"Sit down," Bogo commanded as he moved around the desk to his own seat.

Judy did as she was told, "Is something wrong, sir?"

Bogo didn't answer. Instead, he leaned forward onto his elbows and buried his face in his hands with an obviously frustrated sigh. He didn't speak until he let his hands drop to the desk with and audible thump.

"Today was going so well. Very few reports to file, all officers on duty, no major crimes being committed. I was able to relax, have a cup of coffee, but then I received a report from Officer Coldmen here," he said, motioning to the cheetah standing in the corner, "who happened to be on monitor duty today. What that report was, I think you already know."

It took Judy a few moments of searching for the correct answer, to no success, before she was able to reply, "No, sir. I don't believe I do."

"You realize that each and every one of our cars is fitted with two cameras, right? One which looks forward, and one which looks inside. The feed from these cameras is sent wirelessly to the closest cell tower in the city, which is then directly sent to the monitors in the monitor room," Bogo explained.

Upon hearing this explanation Judy's ears dropped. She immediately knew that she had been caught.

"Sir, I-"

"Insubordination. Oh, how I hate it!" he interrupted, "I told you that we would not be investigating that business!"

"I wasn't there investigating, I was there to apologize for pestering him. I just kinda…ended up staying for a while and watching his class," Judy replied, nervously trying to weave around Bogo's accusations.

"Oh, and let me guess, you asked his name; discovered exactly why he refuses business to predators, perhaps?"

"Ark actually isn't refusing business to predators. It's just that the type of person he refuses business to usually ends up being a larger predator," Judy explained.

The room fell silent. Bogo was staring down at Judy with a look she had never seen before; a look nobody had seen for a long time. His eyes were wide, filled with anger and surprise, and his mouth hung open. Officer Coldmen also had wide eyes as she stared at the little cotton tail, who was growing increasingly nervous.

"What did you say his name was?" the Chief asked, his voice low and calmer than Judy had ever heard it.

"Ark Fanger," Judy replied, shrinking down in her seat.

Chief Bogo and Officer Coldmen met at the eyes. They shared a knowing gaze for a few moments, while Judy looked on in confusion. She almost jumped out of her seat when Bogo's eyes returned to her.

"You are not to have anything to do with him. You do not speak to him, you do not go into his gym. Is that understood?" he asked, his voice still low

"Sir, what's going on?"

"That mammal is a traitor to our city, and to this department," Bogo replied while standing and grabbing his keys, "You and Wilde are on file duty for the rest of the week, and if I catch you near that place, you're fired. McHorn is in charge, I'm going out."

Before any more words could be spoken, chief Bogo stormed out of the room. Judy quickly followed him out to the front room, where all of the resident officers stopped in place to watch him stomp his way out of the building. When he was gone, all of the officers looked to Judy for answers; answers which she could not give. Bogo went straight to his car and without a moment's hesitation, pulled out of the ZPD parking lot and began the drive directly to Weselton Way. He arrived outside Sharp Fitness just as the last person was leaving and Ark was beginning the clean-up for the day as he had not yet hired any staff to do that for him. He was still wearing the black boxing shorts with the red ribbon tied around his waist, his back turned to the door as he placed dumbbells on their racks. Then Bogo walked in.

"Sorry, we're closed. You'll have to come back tomorrow," he said, not even bothering to turn around.

"What are you doing here?" Bogo asked, his volume close to a whisper.

Hearing that voice, Ark froze. No reply was given, and for the longest time, no movements were made. Finally, after a good few minutes, the white tiger stood from his kneeled position and turned to face the Buffalo.

"Chief Bogo. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

 **Ok, this chapter is WAY short, and I was planning to go farther with it, but in visualizing this little bit going on right here, I saw a really high tension point which calls for the first cliffhanger. Try and predict what you think all of this is about if you can. Also, the backstory of Ark is something you all will not have to put together for yourselves, though I have gotten a few pieces of it thrown out there. I have a question for you all: when I finally explain who Ark is, how should I put it? I was planning for the entire backstory to be in first person of Ark telling the story to someone, and having the backstory be a few chapters long (I've plotted a very detailed one for this character) but if anyone has any better suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Alright, that'll be all. Review!**


	5. Mr Bigs

**I've not received any reviews on the last chapter yet, so I have none to address. Enjoy!**

Chapter 5

Nobody at the ZPD knew what had Chief Bogo storming out so angrily; nobody had seen him move with such purpose before. Nobody accept one feline who had shared a knowing glance with the Chief before he left. Judy immediately ran back to the room where Angelica Coldmen was still standing, looking as if she was reliving bad memories, as she actually was. Images of her past flooded in front of her mind. Her father dressed in a ZPD Uniform rushing into her bedroom, where she hid under the bed holding a soft grey blanket close. Gunfire could be heard from outside her apartment building. Lots of shouting, and noise. One tribal accent, and another powerful British one.

"Coldmen, hurry up! We can't hold them any longer!" The British accent shouted.

Angelica was broken from her trance by the sound of Judy calling her name. She took a moment to re-discover where she was, shaking her head back and forth to put her mind back in the moment.

"Yes, Officer Hopps, what it is?" she quickly asked.

"What is going on here?"

She froze. Silence filled the room for a few moments before Angelica was able to speak, "Nothing," she said, before trying to move past the bunny and out of the room.

"If you don't tell me, I'll find out for myself!" Judy exclaimed, once again stopping the cheetah in her tracks

With a sigh, she stepped back into the room and shut the door.

"All you need to know is this: Ark Fanger was a cop. He graduated with my father and Chief Bogo. One day, a group of criminals with a lot of firepower came to my home. I don't know why they were there, but they were hunting my dad. The last thing I saw that night was Officer Fanger in a fight with one of the criminals. He got the guy in a lock, but hesitated just long enough for the guy to raise a gun and shoot my dad. Officer Fanger never came to me; I never saw him again. He disappeared, resigned and left the city. He abandoned us, he left his family, and Bogo lost his only two friends in the world. He's a coward who couldn't get the job done," she explained angrily, not taking a single moment to calm down before stomping out of the room.

Judy was left speechless. Never would she have expected such a story to be behind the Siberian Tiger. Back at the gym, things weren't going any better. The discussion between Ark and Bogo had gone from quiet and mostly calm to loud, angry, and anything but.

"You abandoned us!" screamed Bogo

"I lost everything!"

"And what did I lose? What did she lose? A friend, a father, but you couldn't see that. Instead, you added to our loss!" he retaliated

Ark to a few steps toward Bogo and put a single finger on his chest, "How could I have faced any of you? You would never have forgiven me! I tried to talk to you, but you wouldn't accept excuses. The blood on my hands was too much for you-"

Before he could continue his words, Bogo sent a right hook straight to his face, too fast to be dodged. Ark was knocked straight to the ground, dazed from the impact.

Bogo's voice once again became quiet, "Don't ever show your face to me again, and don't interfere with my Officers."

Without another word, Bogo left. Ark stayed on the ground for a good long while, unable to gather his thoughts. All he felt was the pain in his left cheek, and the pain of bad memories. Night had already fallen upon the city. Nick and Judy were home and had changed into their nightclothes, and were chatting over the phone.

"Don't worry, Judy. I'm sure Chief knows what he's doing," Nick said, taking a bite of his late dinner.

"I don't know, I've never seen him so emotional. And this story behind Ark…I feel like there's gotta be more to it," Judy argued, sitting on her bed.

"Maybe the grumpy guy is just really bias!" one of the teen antelopes from next door to Judy shouted.

"Shut up! Can't you see she's trying to be in turmoil?"

"Your neighbors again?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Judy replied, but she became deaf to all other words as her mind began to work.

Her face took on a look of hard thought. Maybe her neighbor was right. Ark and Bogo were apparently close friends. If something went wrong, and Ark had to leave, Bogo could've taken it personal.

"Carrots?" Nick asked, breaking her trance.

"Huh? What?"

"You did your zone-out thing again, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess I did. We'll talk tomorrow, Nick. We're on file duty for the rest of the week, and there are a few files I'd like to pull," Judy replied

They said their goodbyes before ending the call. Judy went straight to bed, and quickly fell asleep, awaiting the work-filled day to come. The next morning, way down in Tundra Town, Ark was waking with a headache. His face was sore, and a subtle bruise was hidden by his snow white fur and black stripe going across his cheek. He went through his normal preparations, but while walking down the hall to his front door, he froze in place. Once again, he stared at each and every picture on the dresser in the hallway. Pictures of his family; his wife and son, back when they were happy together. With a sad look on his face, Ark exited his home and walked out to his car. The drive back to Capitol City didn't take long, but the morning seemed to be gong slower than usual. The events of the prior day were wearing down the feline. He could already tell that it would be a long day. At the ZPD, Judy and Nick had already begun their discreet search. Bogo was in his office in an especially grumpy mood, so nobody was planning on bothering him. In one of the far back rooms of the building, Nick and Judy searched through drawer after drawer, looking for a useful file.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" asked Nick.

"Anything that relates to the death of Officer Coldmen. Especially files which involve Officers Fanger and Bogo as well," she replied, skimming through yet another file.

"You realize you could lose your job over this, right? And more importantly, you could make me lose mine?"

"Some cases are more important than keeping our jobs. Besides, last time a case was this important to me, I did lose my job. Then we saved the city, and both got jobs as officers," said Judy

"I still say this is a bad idea. Your last case didn't go into the emotional past of-"

"Here!" Judy interrupted, hopping over to her partner, "drug smugglers tackled by Officer Coldmen. Officer killed in a gun fight."

"Sounds like our file," Nick said, walking with Judy over to the table in the room.

They both sat down as Judy began to read, "In Zootopia's crime-filled underbelly, rival crime lords are in a battle for addictive hallucinogens which are low in supply. Officer Billy Coldmen was put on the case, but one of the gangs wanted to make sure that their supply of the drug was not cut off. To ensure this, they began a hunt for Officer Coldmen and anyone involved in the case, including those he may have told. Mrs. Coldmen was the first to fall victim to the hunt, followed by Officer Coldmen when they followed him home. Officer Bogo and Officer Fanger fought with him in the brutal firefight, but Billy Coldmen was killed by gunshot to the head, leaving his daughter, Angelica Coldmen, orphaned and in the care of Officer Bogo. Transportation of the drug soon ceased, and the gang disappeared."

Silence filled the room. Neither Nick nor Judy could find the words to describe what they had heard. Even Nick, who used to be at the peak of the scams in the city, hadn't head of this event.

"There has to be more," He said.

"There isn't, that's all it says about the case. No witnesses, no other connections. It doesn't even give the name of the other gang involved," replied Judy, sounding distressed. "Not a single one of my questions was answered. It doesn't make sense!"

Judy hurled the closed file across the table, frustrated and confused. Her ears were even hanging down, signaling the much less passionate fox of his friends distress. He quickly wrapped her in a comforting hug.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Sunday is our day off, so how about we go to Ark's house and get what answers he can give. We're gonna figure this out, and then our lives will go back to normal and I'll treat you to some ice cream," he reassured her

After a few moments of silence, Judy slowly nodded and together they returned to sorting and organizing each of the day's new files. The rest of the week was slow. At the gym, Ark went through the motions, wanting to reach the weekend where he could rest. He had plans to meet with an old friend and talk about the recent events which had taken place for him; a friend who had helped him through hard times in the past. By the time Sunday rolled around, none of them could wait. Ark was happy to be off work and excited to see his friend, Judy hopeful that she would find the answers she was looking for. Nick was simply a fan of sneaking around, and could hardly wait to get to it.

Judy ended up having to pick Nick up in her old car which was more to the likeness of a golf cart. Having already looked up Ark's address, they had no trouble locating his home in Tundra Town. They immediately got a strange vibe from the territory, though. In order to reach the house, they were forced to pull off of the main road and drive off away from the city and into a more rural area. The road was deserted, and Judy was glad she brought her jacket because it was quite cold. Neither of them were in uniform. Judy were her favorite jeans, a T-shirt, and a black hoodie. Nick was wearing his usual outfit with a puffy grey coat over it. When the house finally came into sight, the two were surprised.

"Not enough house for the yard," said Nick.

"You said it," Judy agreed.

The house was one story only. From the front, it looked fairly simple. Wood construction painted dark brown with a black roof covered in snow. The front door was on the far right, and on the left section there was a window which the two assumed led into the living room based on the flickering fire which glowed through the blinds which had been pulled down, though two voices could be heard inside as Judy and Nick approached the door.

"I'm sorry to hear that, my friend. I know he hasn't been the same since you left. If you like, eh, for old time's sake, I could take care of him," said a high pitched male voice

Judy and Nick immediately recognized the voice. Someone who had helped them in the past, and who was the grandfather to Judy's goddaughter.

"Is that Mr. Bigs?" Judy asked quietly.

Nick only nodded as the both began to move much more stealthily around to the living room window.

"No, that isn't necessary. He has every right to be upset. After everything that happened, everything that I did, I think a punch to the face isn't so bad. But that isn't why I wanted to meet. I needed to talk to you about the medicine bust all those years ago, and about the Night Howler crisis a few weeks ago," Ark replied.

"What about them?"

"Do you remember the name of the leader of the gang that was trying to take you down?" Ark asked.

"Yes, Carson Reynolds. Didn't want another crime boss taking over the city he was after, so he went after my sick daughter. How could I forget-" Mr. Bigs was interrupted by the sound of a certain fox slipping and falling in snow, "I've been followed!"

Judy was giving Nick the evil eye while he smiled guiltily up at her from the ground. Immediate frantic shuffling from inside. Mixes of standard footsteps and very large ones obviously from Mr. Bigs' Polar Bear henchmen. The shuffling was followed by the sounds of metal devices sliding against each other; guns being loaded and chambered. Three of the polar bears soon ran out of the house and had their guns pointed at the off-duty officers within seconds. Unfortunately, none of these guards we present when Judy and Nick had visited Mr. Bigs a few weeks prior, so they went unrecognized. They were then forcefully dragged into the house and thrown to the ground in front of Ark and Mr. Bigs.

"Judy?" Mr. Bigs asked.

"What are you two doing here?" Ark followed.

The two off duty officers quickly got to their feet and began explaining themselves, but were silenced when Mr. Bigs raised his ring-covered hand to be kissed. Nick was the first to do so, followed by Judy.

"Now tell me. Why have you followed me here, my child?" Mr. Bigs asked, speaking directly to Judy.

"Listen, there is just a really big mistake here. We didn't know you would be here, or why you are here, but we came to talk to him," Judy replied, pointing to the white tiger sitting beside the fire.

"What more could you want from me, Hopps? You did your little investigation, you saw everything you needed to see, and gave Bogo another reason to hate me. This is my home, I come here for peace," Ark said, rambling in his frustration.

Judy had a look of complete guilt on her face. She didn't know things had gone so badly when Bogo paid a visit to Ark, and didn't know he hated seeing her so much. Thankfully, Nick came to her rescue.

"That is why we're here. We don't understand why he hates you, but we want to. We want to know what happened in the hallucinogen bust a few years ago," he said.

"Well, I'm not interested in talking, so please leave before I make you leave," Ark replied.

"My friend," Mr. Bigs chimed in, "Don't you think it would be best they know the truth? These two aren't ones to give up on an investigation so easily, and I don't think you want them learning everything from the Chief. I trust these two with the life of myself, and the life of my daughter. You can trust them."

Ark was silent for a few moments, letting his gaze jump between Mr. Bigs and his two uninvited guests. After those few moments, he sighted and motioned to the couch right beside the window.

"Sit down, I'll have to start from the beginning."

 **Holy crap, the writer's block! It's been over a week since my last update. I spent entire days staring at this screen wondering how on earth to lead into this particular moment. The next chapter or so are going to be in the first-person perspective of Ark as he tells his own backstory, so prepare for a shift in mood. I feel like I might be rushing this a little bit, but at the same time, the story still has a lot more to it which has yet to come forth, so don't lose hope for it. Alright, be sure to leave a review to let me know what you think, and I'll see you all next time!**


	6. Ark Fanger

**Back again with another chapter! I got one particular review which I am grateful for. It mentioned a few points where I could improve, including in portraying the personalities of the main characters from the movie, and I will definitely take all of those points in to consideration after the backstory. Regarding the backstory, this review also mentioned that most of it was already revealed. That there isn't really anything else I could shed light on. But rest assured that that isn't the case. I've led in bits and pieces, including the weapon, but there is way more to it, and you'll all see that in this and maybe the next chapter, though I'll probably just make one longer chapter of the entire backstory. That's all for now, so enjoy! Remember, it's gonna switch to first person for a while.**

Chapter 6

"Sit down, I'll have to start from the beginning."

Nick and Judy wasted no time in moving over to find their places on the couch, anxious to hear the story. Even some of the polar bears had found places in the room and were listening with the greatest attention.

"I met Bogo many years ago, back at the ZPD academy…"

 _I was young, ambitious. More than that, I was unstoppable. I may have been a smaller tiger, but I was already ahead of my class in every category. I wanted nothing more than to make a difference in the world. To make the world a better place, so I pushed forward. Many of the cadets envied me. Others were indifferent. But one in particular at the back of the class hated me because he couldn't keep up. I was setting the bar too high, and he couldn't compare no matter how hard he tried. His name was Bogo, a buffalo. We were about the same size, but he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about life as I was. He didn't have the drive I did to succeed; he was driven by hatred. So instead of bettering himself, he decided to begin sabotaging me. Everything I did, he would be there to make it more difficult for me, so I took to ignoring him for the most part. Sometimes I had to get stern, make him back off, but he was like a child. He didn't care about his own success anymore; only my downfall. This brought him down too far._

 _It was our second year, the day of the second semester finals. With every test I excelled in, he couldn't complete. He didn't have the strength, or the drive, and seeing me go so far only broke him more. When the ice run obstacle course came around he had lost all hope, but his hatred drove him forward. He was in the first running group, right beside me. When the gun was fired, we all took off, and I was naturally pulling ahead, but everyone else including Bogo were hot on my tail. As I climbed to the top of the ice wall and began to hop over, I glanced backwards. What I saw froze me in place; Bogo was climbing up the ice wall behind everyone. He couldn't keep up, and in his eyes I saw only heartbreak. I stood there, staring, as everyone passed me by. He didn't move either. He was frozen by his shame, halfway up the wall._

 _What I did next was an action which shaped my entire life. I reached out with my hand and offered it to him. He looked so confused, so lost. He didn't know what to feel, but after a moment, he took it. I pulled him over the wall and tried to pull him through the course, but he wouldn't let me take another step. He forced me to look him in the eyes._

 _"_ _Why are you helping me, after all the pain I've cause you?" he asked._

 _I don't know why I said what I did, but the words that came out created an unbreakable friendship, "It's not about how much pain someone causes you. It's about whether or not you are willing to take that pain for that person."_

 _In the obstacle course, we came in last, but we couldn't have been happier. From that day forward, we were best friends. I helped him get better physically and mentally. He stopped driving himself with hatred and began sharing my goals for the future. He began to care about everyone. He would help the helpless, do random acts of kindness simply because he wanted to. By the end of our years in the academy, I graduated with honors, and he was only barely behind me. A few weeks later, we were employed as officers of the ZPD. We were partners, and together were unstoppable. We were given the best cases, and solved them all. A few years later, I was in line to become Chief. I had a beautiful wife, an amazing son. Everything I could ever want. When Bogo and I were given our last case, everything changed. Mammals all over the city were being caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs fighting over hallucinogenic drugs. Lives were being lost, and it was up to us to cut off the drug supply. It was a difficult case, but within a month Bogo and I were bringing it to a close. We had leads on the provider of the drug, and had sources pointing towards the two gangs. They were each led by a crime boss. Mr. Bigs, and Carson Reynolds._

 _We had already stopped many of the operations of the Reynolds gang, and were on our way to taking down Mr. Bigs for good when we discovered that one of ZPD's own, Officer Billy Coldmen, was providing him with safe access to the hallucinogen. We were ready to take him down along with Mr. Bigs when we made another discovery; the drug wasn't a hallucinogen at all. It was medicine not approved by the city called Hallucinogen. The gangs weren't fighting over it; they were fighting over a place in the city. Reynolds wanted total control, and couldn't have it with Mr. Bigs around. At the time, Mr. Bigs' daughter was sick and needed medicine. The best chance she had was if she had Hallucinogen. Reynolds knew this, and so he wanted to keep that medicine away until Mr. Bigs gave in. Officer Coldmen was helping Mr. Bigs get what he needed. When we found all of this out, we made a pact. All three of us would help Mr. Bigs save his daughter and take down Carson Reynolds, and Mr. Bigs would help us as well._

 _The pact only lasted another week before Reynolds found out, and in an attempt to scare us off, targeted Billy's daughter. We rushed to his house pursued by Reynolds' thugs. We were in a gunfight while he ran inside to save his daughter. We couldn't hold them off for much longer, and they had bigger guns. I knew we wouldn't make it out alive unless I did something, so I snuck away from our position and got beyond their lines. I took them from behind, bring all of them down before they knew where I was; all but one. With only one of them left, I ran out of ammo. Bogo was reloading, and Billy was running out of his house with his daughter, Angelica. I reacted on instinct, rushing out to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the remaining thug. I was able to get him in a hold, but he still had his gun in hand and intended on finishing what he came to do. Before had any time to react, he raised the gun and fired, ending the life of Billy Coldmen._

Judy was frozen. She, along with many of the present audience, had tears matting the fur on her cheeks. Nick had taken to wrapping his arm around her to comfort her, knowing she had never heard of so much death at once. She was shaking, and her lips were quivering.

 _With no other options, I did what no mammal had done since the creation of Zootopia. I took him to the ground, drew my claws, and tore his carcass open. There was so much blood…I went too far. Bogo was hiding the face of Angelica, not letting her see what I did, but his own face was painted with horror. He and I finished the job. We were able to get Mr. Bigs the medicine, and Carson Reynolds disappeared. The case was closed, but not for me. My guilt was too great. My wife saw me as a monster, and my son was terrified of me. One night, I came home and they were gone. She had packed up their things, taken him, and left. I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror anymore, and Bogo couldn't stand seeing me. He took in Angelica, caring for her to the best of his ability, but I couldn't help him. I couldn't bare letting her see me._

 _After a few days, Bogo stopped caring. He went back to how he was at the academy. Cold, driven by hatred. ZPD tried to make me Chief, but I couldn't take on the role after what I had done. I resigned, and left the city…_

"I came back when I heard about the Night Howlers. I wanted to make sure that the people here were safe from any savage predators," Ark finished.

The room fell silent. Mr. Bigs had his head hanging from the memory, and was the one to break the silence.

"There is a reason my name is never on any files. Why even after the Night Howlers incident, I was never officially mentioned. Because sometimes, officers have to do things, and sometimes people like me do as well. I will always be grateful for how you wonderful people have protected my family," He said.

Judy wiped the tears from her eyes, "I'm so sorry all of that happened."

"That's why I called you here, Mr. Bigs. I believe Carson Reynolds is back," Ark said, causing everyone in the room to jump to attention.

"What makes you think that?" Nick asked.

"I looked into the Night Howler case, and noticed a few strange things. The first thing I noticed was the targeting of Emit Otterton. Why him? If they wanted an otter, why not anyone else? Why the one otter that was on its way straight to your home? I saw that and dug a little deeper, only to find that the stations which synthesized the Night Howler drug were very high tech. Your average redneck couldn't have moonshined up that pellet. Someone with a lot of resources and a lot of power in the crime world would have had to have arranged all of that with Assistant Mayor Bellwether," Ark explained.

"And who else in the crime world has that much power," Judy deduced.

Ark nodded, "I wanted to warn you, and see what you would like to do."

Once again, the room fell silent. Mr. Bigs had a look of hard thought on his face. It didn't take long for him to come to a conclusion.

"Keep your ears to the ground, and keep in touch. If anything else comes up, inform me," He said.

Almost as soon as Mr. Bigs finished, he was lifted up the large polar bear in a black suit.

"I will. Wait, what about Bogo?" Ark asked, "Should I bring him into this?"

"Bogo is not the same as he used to be. I think it best he not know about this unless it becomes absolutely necessary. We'll be in touch," he replied.

Before anymore words could be spoken, Mr. Bigs and all his henchmen left the house. A few minutes later, cars could be heard starting up and driving away. The room was left in silence, nothing being heard except for the crackling wood under the fire. In the silence, Ark stared with intense thought at Judy and Nick, wondering what he should do about them. When he reached a conclusion, he quickly stood, startling the two sitting on the couch.

"You two are a part of this now. I could be right, I could be wrong, but whatever happens, you are part of our pact. Mr. Bigs has always come through for the ZPD when we needed him, so we protect him. I'm not sure what Reynolds wants, but if I'm right, there will be blood. I'm sorry you got dragged into this," Ark said, "You should go. You'll have a hard week ahead, and you're gonna need your strength."

Judy and Nick nodded and left the house together. In silence, they walked to their car and drove off down the road and out of sight. When he was sure they were gone, Ark walked over to stand in front of the fire. Above it was what looked to be just the wall; a dark wooden panel which blended in perfectly with the rest of the room. But with on fluid motion, Ark reached up and pulled the panel out, a wooden door in disguise. A cupboard which hid an only ZPD uniform, bullet-proof vest, Glock 19 and holster. He stood there staring at his old officer garb, stuck in a trance of thought.

Nick was in the driver's seat this time, silently driving back towards the main road. Judy was leaning against her hand, staring out into Tundra Town. She had a forlorn look plastered on her face, still processing the story she had heard. Nick soon noticed this and took action.

"And on the traffic report tonight, we see a pathetic little cart driving along. The bunny in the passenger side looks a little down, maybe she should talk to the driver," He said in his reporter impersonation voice.

Judy let out a sigh, knowing he was right, but not exactly happy about it, "I thought I knew every piece of the Night Howler case. But not only is the case not quite closed, but now it's worse. What are we going to do?"

"We'll do exactly what we were told. Keep our ears low and inform Ark and Mr. Bigs the second something new comes up. We'll be fine, Carrots. You'll see," Nick said, reassuring her.

"I hope you're right."

 **Well, after typing up a ten page dissertation on the life of Ark Fanger, I turned almost all of it into a summarized three page area. Only the most important parts were really detailed. Well, I doubt I gave away any details which painted out that backstory anyways. Leave a review, and I'll see you all next time!**


	7. Broken Glass

**Back again, I am. Spent most of this week writing an abridged script for Act 4 of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," so my week has been fun. Only new reviews I've gotten so far were from people saying they couldn't wait for more, so I hope to provide! Read on, my loyal subjects, and enjoy the spoils of my labor!**

Chapter 7

The next few days were slow for Judy. She looked up every file, checked every old source, but came up empty handed. Nothing of the old Night Howler case led anywhere. With every day that passed, she felt more and more like she was missing something. One Thursday morning in particular, Bogo took notice. Seeing her so stressed, as if she was literally working herself to death, made him wonder if she was really fit for duty that day, and he wasn't going to take the chance. He approached her at her desk.

"Hopps," He said, grabbing her attention, "I want you to take the rest of the day off."

She was quick to her feet, "Sir, I'm fine. I can keep working!"

"Watch your tone, Hopps. You work for me, remember. You're working yourself to death, digging up old files, searching for god knows what. Go home, get some rest, come back tomorrow. That's all," He replied, and without another word, returned to his office.

With a look of frustration, Judy angrily left her desk and stormed out of the building, right past Nick, who was just returning from the Coffee shop. He tried to grab her attention with a witty remark, but was promptly ignored as she left. Instead of taking a car and going home, the frustrated bunny made her way to the city park on foot. The park was a simple place, filled with different art sculptures and street performers. Judy took a seat on a bench right beside one who was setting up with a guitar and amp. She slid down on the bench with a sigh, pressing her palms into her temples. When the street performer, a Lynx, began playing, the music relaxed her. He even began to sing, but Judy paid little attention to the lyrics. Her attention was drawn to the Siberian tiger who had just taken a seat beside her with a smoothie in hand.

"Is there a problem, Officer?" He asked, looking down at the vexed rabbit.

She sighed, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be teaching your class?"

"I would be, but when I arrived this morning, I found that my gym had been broken into. They raided my records, but didn't take anything. Well, nothing accept that old hunting spear," Ark explained, before taking a sip of his smoothie.

That information immediately brought Judy out of her frustrated stupor. She quickly perked up, her ears coming to full height, and turned to face the calm tiger.

"Wait, why would someone break into a gym?"

"I don't know. When I arrived, the entire front glass panel was broken. None of my equipment was touched, and they didn't leave a single trace of themselves behind. Security cameras caught two medium sized figures breaking in, but they were dressed in all black. They were predators, and most definitely cats, but that's all I could find," he replied.

"Have you filed a report?"

"How do you think I ended up here? I was handing in the paperwork when you stormed out of the building," Ark said, smirking.

"Right…" Judy replied.

"As much as I disagree with his daily motive, he is right. You shouldn't stress yourself so much."

Judy didn't reply. She only sunk back into her seat and leaned forward on her hands, listening to the soothing young voice of the Lynx performing beside them. When the chorus began, her ears once again perked up.

"Night Howlers conceited, the world is falling down…But the people retreated back into the ground. Night Howlers are coming and the people run away, when all that we needed was one little change. Night Howlers are running from one little change," he sang, concluding the song.

"What song is that?" Judy asked, intrigued.

"I figured you'd like it. It's 'One Little Change' by Making Life. It talks about how the world is hard, and didn't want to change. But when things got really bad, the tiniest change in the world changed the entire world for the better, and it was all we really needed," He replied.

Judy quickly pulled out her notepad to write down the song and band so she could go back to it when she had the time.

"It was written about you. You made a difference here," the Lynx added, "My sister idolizes you."

"Thank you. I think that was exactly the song I needed to hear."

With that said, Judy stood from her place on the bench and straightened out her uniform.

"Where are you going now?" Ark asked.

"Back to work. I'm on file duty, or I was anyways, so I've got to get your report and all the others put in. I'll see to it someone is sent down to investigate your gym," She replied with a smile.

"Bogo isn't going to like that," he said, smirking.

Judy didn't reply; only began her track back to the police station. To her relief, Bogo was nowhere in sight. She went straight to the front desk to see Clawhauser.

"Hey Judy, I thought you were off duty for the day," He said, placing down his box of doughnuts.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," She replied with a warm smile, "So, a Siberian Tiger named Ark Fanger came in earlier and left a report about a break in at Sharp Fitness and Aikido. Do you still have that file?"

Benjamin quickly grabbed the few files he had and began sifting through them, eventually pulling one out.

"This the one you're looking for?" He asked, handing it to her.

After briefly looking it over, she said it was and began walking back to her desk. She was quickly stopped by the chubby Leopard calling her back to the front counter.

"He also dropped off this disc. He said it was the security footage from the night of the break in," he said, passing the disc over the counter to her.

"Thanks Ben," She said, before once again making her way back to her desk.

She quickly booted up her computer, and while waiting for it to do so, opened up the report file. It contained a short typed report about the break in, stating all of the details needed, and the address of the gym. It also mentioned the one stolen item as being an antique hunting spear which was three generations old. Nothing in the report aided in her finding any extra details, so she moved to the computer. After inserting the security footage into the computer's disc drive, she opened up one of the two video files which was four hours long, but could be sped up or slowed down when needed. There was only a single camera perspective, which came from the corner of the Aikido area in the back corner, near the antique spear. It was a panoramic camera, so Judy could see almost the entire gym.

When she first played the video, it seemed completely frozen. The lights were out, and absolutely nothing was happening. Judy had to fast forward fifteen minutes in order for movement to be seen. Judy saw the movement of two dark figures outside the front glass panel. They seemed to be moving all around, dragging their hands over the glass. After a few minutes of this, the entire glass plate shattered into hundreds of shards, all of which fell forward into the gym. The two were quick to enter and wasted no time moving straight to the office, out of sight. The camera audio was able to catch the sounds of the two burglars rummaging through the filing cabinets in the office. They weren't going through them at any fast rate. Judy had to speed up almost three hours of footage before they emerged back into the main area of the gym. One of them left immediately, but the other stopped just shy of the broken window to turn and face the camera. After a few moments of hesitation, he jogged back over and leaped up, grabbing the spear off the wall before making a beeline out of the gym and out of sight. The video file ended with Ark's arrival on the scene.

"Hey carrots, I thought you went home," Nick said, startling Judy.

"Cheese and crackers, Nick, you scared me!" she exclaimed, irritated.

He only chuckled, "so what new movie is this?"

"It's security cam footage from the gym. It got broken into last night, but it's so strange," Judy replied, rewinding the video back to when the two burglars were outside the still in-tact glass pane.

"How so?"

"Well look here," She replied, playing the video, "Look at what they're doing. They're just feeling the glass, and you see how it breaks?"

"Yeah, into shards. Should I report this to the Zootopia Institute of science? 'Just in, a new discovery! Glass breaks into shards!'" Nick mocked.

"No, I mean it doesn't break from a single point. They didn't hit it with anything, it just all fell apart while they pushed on it," she explained.

"So, what? Are you saying they used explosives?" Nick asked, this time being serious as he pulled up a chair.

"No, I don't think so. Any explosive would've left some kind of residue, but as far as I know, the glass is clean."

"Well, the only other thing that could cause glass to break apart like that is a consistent high frequency sound. They must have had some kind of device which could make that sound. It isn't hard to make something like that," he replied, still not convinced it was anything more than a rag-tag burglary.

"Ok, then what were they looking for?" Judy asked, "They spend hours sitting in that office looking through files."

"Is there a security camera in the office?"

It was at that moment that Judy remembered there was another video file. She quickly opened it up to find that it was, in fact, a security camera inside the office. It was positioned in the right corner over the door, and the footage was only 3 hours long. It began like the other one, with everything completely still. Inside the office was only a desk, a good amount of writing supplies, and two small filing cabinets, each only having two drawers. At the back of the office, there was another door which led somewhere unknown.

It didn't take long for the video to hit the point where the two dark figures entered the office. The three hour video, which Nick and Judy sped through, was taken up almost entirely by the two carefully reading through each file, looking for some unknown information. After almost all that time had passed, they finished reading through each of the files and left all of them thrown all over the floor. Before leaving, the checked the door at the back of the room only to find that it was, in fact, just a storage closet filled with foldable chairs. The two of them quickly left the office and the video ended.

"And they didn't take anything?" Nick asked

Without answering, Judy opened up the first video and played the part where they stole the spear.

"Nothing but that."

"That's strange," he said

"I know. Why go through the files and only take a-"

"No, not that. I mean the way he took it. They were looking for something in the files, but couldn't find it so they left. His partner ran off without a second glance, but he stopped and had to really contemplate taking the spear. He hesitated. Whatever their plan was, it didn't involve that weapon. He strayed from their plan to take it," Nick explained.

Surprised by his deduction of that detail, Judy replayed that section of the footage once again, and came to the same conclusion. Before their conversation could continue, a looming shadow silenced them. The shadow of a frustrated buffalo.

"Hopps, I thought I told you to go home!" Bogo exclaimed.

"I took all the time I needed, sir. And I found what I was looking for," Judy replied

Intrigued, the Chief moved around the desk to look at the file and video she had. He didn't take any time to read of watch, "Back to this again. What did I tell you about that gym?"

"Trust us sir," Nick said, "You're gonna want to hear this."

 **I am SO sorry for the delay on the chapter. I promise I'll get better, but this time I have a good excuse! An alibi, so to speak. The day after I last updated, I stumbled across an amazing opportunity. I scored an audition with Next Star Productions, a talent agency which was in the area looking for new and young talent to put on TV and use in film. I spent the last week and a half practicing my monolog, choosing an outfit, and I even got my makeup done for the first time in my life (it felt weird). Any who, my audition was yesterday, and I nailed it. I got a call back last night, and of the almost 100 people they auditioned, they wanted me along with a chosen few others. Sadly, in order to continue in the program, they wanted an enormous sum of money (to me anyways) which I couldn't pay, but it was still an amazing experience. So here I am again, and I'll get you guys another chapter by Saturday at the latest. Leave me a review, and tell the other Zootopia fans about the story!**


	8. Missing Hardware

**Back again! And Saturday it is. Got a few god reviews, mainly people saying they wanted more. I did get one review of someone trying to put the story together before I've typed it up. It seems I've got a conspiracy theorist reading my story, and I gotta say it's good motivation for me to make this case a bit more mysterious, though I'm not going to stray from my plan for the story. I'm also not going to tell you if you're right or wrong, but I will say that I am impressed by your deduction. Whether you were right or wrong in your conclusion from them, I won't say, but you picked up on just about every hint and clue, every bit of foreshadowing that I put down. Do note, however, that you may have been as misled by those things as Judy and Nick. We'll just have to wait and see how accurate you are. Alright, enjoy!**

Chapter 8

When Chief Bogo first went to the same side of the desk as Judy and Nick, he looked intrigued. But as they went on explaining and showing what they had found, he became less and less amused. His eyes closed and forehead crinkled with frustration as he raised a hand to silence the partners.

"So, the gym was robbed?" He questioned, glaring down at them.

"No. There's something more. They were looking for some very specific-" Nick began, but was silenced.

"I will send one of our detectives down there, where they will do their job and find the culprits. I'm going to give them this case, and you two are going to Sahara Square. We've gotten some reports of missing hardware."

Judy immediately hopped down from her chair, doing her very best to hold a respectful composure, "But sir, this is our case!"

"A case which conveniently puts you back in the gym I told you to stay away from. You worked miracles in your first case, but I'm beginning to wonder if you aren't a one-case-wonder," Bogo said, leaving Judy's mouth hanging agape and ears hanging behind her head.

Nick's blood boiled. He took two good steps toward Bogo, holding much less decency than Judy, "You listen close. She did more than anyone else in this entire department could have. You refused to help her, and what's more, you tried to make her case impossible."

"Hold your tongue," Bogo commanded.

He ignored the order, "You just couldn't stand seeing a weaker animal succeed."

"Nick," Judy said, pleading his silence.

"What do you have against underdogs?"

"Shut up!" Bogo screamed, his voice drawing what attention hadn't already been drawn from the entire building. His voice then lowered to a quiet anger, "I am at my wits end with you two. Get to Sahara Square, and if either of you slip up again, you'll be turning your badges in to me."

With a sneer, Nick walked past the infuriated buffalo, trailed by the shocked bunny. They went straight to their cruiser and within minutes were on the highway heading straight for their ordered location. It took a few minutes for Nick to be able to calm down enough to speak.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine. I'm a little worried about you," Judy replied, placing a hand on his shoulder.

There was a silent pause. A few moments ticked by before he spoke again, "He shouldn't have said that."

"It's alright, Nick. I proved myself to him once, I'll do it again. He wants us to find out where some hardware is going, but we'll do more. We're gonna bring it all back," Judy replied

Though he was still angry with the turn of events, he couldn't help but smile at Judy's optimism. He never said it out loud, but to him, she was truly an inspiration.

"Before noon?" he asked jokingly.

"Maybe not."

They both shared a soft fit of laughter before silence filled the car and they continued their drive to Sahara Square. By the time they arrived, Bogo had already sent three officers and one of the ZPD detectives to Sharp Fitness & Aikido. Ark was standing aside, watching them examine the broken glass and file cabinets. Officers McHorn, Wolford, and Fangmeyer were doing most of the labor while the detective, a doe whose name was unknown, took pictures, bagged what little evidence could be found, and took notes. After a good long while, a clean-up crew arrived and the detective pulled Ark aside to talk.

"Well Mr. Fanger, I'll tell you this, whoever broke in isn't sloppy. No prints on the glass, faces in the camera, or blood. I've got a few fur samples but those will only tell me so much," she said, putting away her notebook.

"So, what are you saying, detective?" He asked.

"I'm saying that whoever broke into your gym aren't some two-bit criminals. They knew what they were doing. I'll do what I can, but I doubt I'll be able to find out who they are. I don't mean to throw away all hope, but don't get your hopes up about getting that spear back," she replied.

Ark took a moment to register her words, "Thank you, detective. Contact me if you find anything. I'll stop by the Police Department if I get any more helpful information."

The detective nodded before getting in her car and driving off. When she was out of sight, Ark walked around the clean-up crew and back into his office. He spent the rest of the day organizing the strewn-about files. Meanwhile, Nick and Judy were speaking with the owner of the Dessert Depot in Sahara Square, a camel. So far, they had learned that the disappearing hardware was all electronic, ranging from batteries to speakers to electrical wiring to sound cards, with a few tools on the side. They were walking through the back storage area of the store as the camel went on to explain how it all came about.

"It started with the disappearance of a few stereos. I suspected that one of my employees was stealing them," He said.

"What made you think that?" Nick asked.

"You see, every other week we get a new shipment of stalk. I personally check off every item to the exact amount to see if everything was delivered, and it all has been for as long as I've been the manager. After I check it all off, I pass it on to the workers, and they sort it all and distribute it throughout the warehouse," He replied.

"And you no longer believe this?" Judy asked.

"Well, I'm still not sure. I was never able to catch any of them stealing, and the security cameras didn't show anything suspicious. All I know is I'm missing stalk, and my superiors aren't happy."

"We understand, and we'll do everything we can. But we're going to need a few things," Judy replied.

"Anything," he stated without missing a beat.

"Thanks. We'll need a list of all employees and missing stalk, serial numbers and all," Nick said.

"Right this way," he replied, leading them back into an office.

They waited for a few moments while he booted up a computer and printed out an assortment of papers. He took a few moments to sort them into two packets and put them each into their own folder.

"Here's the list of employees," He said, handing it to Judy, "And here's the list of missing stalk," he added, handing that folder to Nick.

"Thank you. We'll get back to you as soon as we find something." Judy said, and without further words, they left.

The sun was getting low when they got into the car, and by the time they got back to the department, it was setting.

"So, I'm thinking we go a little while past our shift, like the old days," Judy said, not wanting to call it a day just yet.

"The old days was only five weeks ago, and the old days happened to involve two straight days of no sleep," Nick joked, getting out of the car.

She quickly did the same, "Come on, just a few hours."

They walked into the building with smiles on their faces, "Alright, but you're buying the coffee," Nick replied.

They went straight to their respective desks, which were luckily right beside each other, and powered up their computers.

"I'm gonna check these employees for criminal backgrounds. You do a quick search on those items to see if any of them are being sold on the internet," Judy commanded.

"Yes ma'am, and would you like fries with your order?"

"Very funny," she replied, rolling her eyes.

He couldn't help but laugh at his own antics before jumping online and searching all over the net for the items reported stolen. He searched for the exact radios, stereos, and electronics but found nothing matching the serial numbers. Judy went through each of the employees criminal records and put them in order on a list from worst to best.

"Well, I can't find anything. If they're being sold, it's on the black market," Nick stated, sitting back in his seat.

"I'm having a bit more luck. This guy is great at hiring staff. Five of them have criminal records, three of them for assault, one for breaking and entering, and the other for robbery. Any one of them could be a candidate," Judy replies, turning her computer monitor for him to see.

"Species?"

"The robber, Miguel Bandito, a raccoon. He burgled a convenience store fifteen years ago. Now he's a floor worker," she said, causing Nick to snicker, "What is it?"

"Burgled sounds funny," Nick replied, continuing to chuckle.

Judy rolled her eyes again, "Our trespasser with theft on the side is an arctic fox."

"Hey, my cousin!"

"Will you pay attention!" Judy exclaimed, slapping him on the arm as he laughed, "Her name is Kate Winters. She's in customer service. The three convicted of assault are all prey, surprisingly. A warthog named Joseph Hoggle, an elk named Martin Grazer, and a jackrabbit named Austin-"

"Your cousin- ouch!" Nick said, but was silenced by a flying tape dispenser.

"Named Austin Grundle," Judy finished.

"Wait wait wait, Austin _Grundle_?" Nick asked.

"Yeah."

"You're making that up," he replied with a smile spread across his face.

"Oh grow up!" Judy yelled, doing her very best to hold back a smile of her own as the immature fox burst into laughter.

"No wait, that makes sense though that he's convicted of assault," Nick said once he was able to breathe.

"What do you mean?" Judy asked.

"Because that means the person he assaulted couldn't hit back, because no matter where they hit, it would be a cheap shot," Nick said, once again exploding with laughter. He spoke again when he was able to calm down. "What about the other employees?"

"There's eleven of them, but I didn't really look into them since their records are clean. Melvin Minch, Lyn Feldmen, Don Reynolds, Bianca Wisk, Jeffery Spots, Winston Philips, Ron Swanson, Gabriella Thompson, Michelle Livingston, Tom Glyndail, and Amanda Sults. I didn't look up their species," She replied.

"Well, we'll figure it out. We should start with Kate Winters. She seems like the most likely candidate," Nick said.

After another few minutes of work, the two friends powered everything down and clocked out for the night, both of them heading straight home. They both went straight to bed, wanting to get some small amount of sleep before it was time to return to work. Elsewhere in Zootopia, a dark figure was prowling the dark allies of a dark district. As an unlucky wolf walked into the ally, the dark figure entered the light, and in its hand was an old antique spear. The wolf froze.

 **This chapter is definitely much shorter, and I feel like it could've been better quality, but I got hit with writers block again. I do hope everything came through clearly. Please leave a review to let me know what you think I could do to improve. Don't you enjoy my cliffhangers? This one wasn't exactly led into, and won't really be capitalized in the next chapter, but don't forget about it. And to my conspiracy theorist, there were a few more things dropped in here which you can pick up on. I'm interested in seeing how quickly you figure it out. Alright, have a good night everyone!**


	9. 187

**Well zippidy do da day, I'm back! To my first review on the last chapter, sorry! I honestly thought that Austin Grundle joke was more cringy than funny, but I couldn't resist putting it in. To my conspiracy theorist, you pointed out a good many things, but also missed a good many as well. Remember that each little hint and clue I drop may not just be connected to the future of the story, but also to the past. Minor details, but important to solving the case and predicting where the story is going, if you really want that. Alright, on with the story. Leave a review!**

Chapter 9

The morning following Judy and Nick's long night of work, they weren't quite feeling the effects. They were as energetic as ever as they entered the roll call room, otherwise known as the bull pit. When Bogo finally arrived, he looked warn down, as if he hadn't gotten a moment of sleep. In his hand was a large cup of coffee, black and steaming hot.

"Everyone in your seats," He commanded, and without hesitation, everyone sat, "Looks like the city is returning to the way it was two months ago. A few hours ago, a wolf by the name of Winston Philips was reported missing by his roommate, another wolf. He never returned home from a late night errand to the convenience store, so this case is now priority one. Officers Hopps and Wilde, you two will continue on the case I assigned you yesterday. Officer McHorn, I want you to go to his house and take his statement. Find out anything…"

Judy zoned out as Bogo continued to give orders to the remaining officers. Another missing mammal case? What would the purpose be for this one? Before it was specific targeting by the Night Howler synthesizers. Now, she couldn't think of a motive. She was broken from her trance by Nick calling her name.

"What?" She asked, letting her eyes meet his.

"Roll call is over. You zoned out," he replied, motioning to the empty room.

"Oh, well let's get to work. We've got hardware to find," she said, hopping down from her seat and leading Nick out of the room and to their desks, "Alright, so we've got our first, second, third, fourth and fifth suspect. Suspect number one: Kate Winters."

"Convicted of breaking and entering, stealing jewelry, and tax fraud evasion. Did five years in prison with ten years' probation which just ended last year," Nick said, reading off the Arctic Fox's file.

"Huh, maybe you are related Mr. $200 a day," Judy joked, poking at his ribs.

"Yeah yeah, very funny."

"Is she working today?" She questioned.

"She's got the afternoon shift today. She'd be home right now," He replied.

"Get her address," Judy commanded while grabbing their car keys.

"Got it."

Together they went back out to their car and left the station, heading straight for the rural housing area of Capitol City where the address led them. As the pulled into the driveway of the desired house, they both stared wide-eyed. Looking up at the giant three story house complete with lush front garden, alabaster white construction, and fountains, they couldn't help but feel there would be no motive for this particular person to need to steal anything.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Nick said, re-checking the address on the paper.

"What?" Judy asked, stepping out of the car, soon followed by Nick.

Together, they began walking to the front door, "Uh, fair warning, I may or may not know the people who live here."

"How?"

"Well, let's just say a certain old friend of mine used to live a very lush life, but hated his family so he ran away," he replied slowly.

"Oh my god, this is Finnick's house?!" Judy exclaimed enthusiastically.

"No, this is his parent's house."

"Then why would Kate be here?" she asked

"How should I know?" he replied as they reached the door.

After a few moments of hesitation, Nick tentatively knocked on the white wooden door. There was a few moments of silence before the door was opened to reveal an old male fennec fox.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"Hi, Judy Hopps, ZPD. We're looking for Kate Winters. Is she home?"

"She's in the theater," he replied, widening the door to allow the two officers to enter, "I'll go fetch her. Would you like something to drink?"

"We're fine, thanks," Nick replied.

They were led into the living room and sat on a couch while the old fox disappeared up a flight of carpeted stairs. The layout of the room was, in a word, rich. The floor was polished granite tile. Opposite the couch they were sitting on was a couch which was exactly the same, separated from them only by a crystal glass table. On the adjacent sides of the oval table were two chairs, both looking exceedingly fancy. The wall opposite the door they used to enter that room was almost entirely glass, giving a view to the backyard revealing a large pool. After a few minutes, the fox returned down the stairs accompanied by a female arctic fox closer to Nick's size.

"Morning officers. Is there something I can help you with?" she asked, sitting on the couch opposite Judy and Nick.

"Yes, actually. You work at the Dessert Depot in Sahara Square, right?" Judy asked.

"Yeah, I work in customer service. Why?"

"Well, we've received some reports of missing merchandise from the warehouse," Nick stated.

"And you think it was me," Kate stated, slumping back into her seat.

"You are a suspect, yes. We'd just like to ask you a few questions involving your criminal record. Is that alright?" Judy said, softening her voice and keeping a warm smile on her face.

"Yeah, I guess," she replied, not seeming all too happy about it.

"Thank you. To start off, why don't you summarize your entire break-and-enter?"

"I was an orphaned child out on the street. I had nothing and nobody would help me, so I was gonna get what I needed. I broke in to the house of a family who could afford to spare a little, took a few necklaces and a bit of food, then left. Cops caught me a few blocks down," Kate replied, sitting forward again.

"So you stole from a wealthy family?" Nick asked.

"Only what I needed. I couldn't stand seeing a family with so much do nothing to help kids like me with nothing," she replied.

"Do you know off hand the address or name of the family you stole from?" Judy questioned.

Kate motioned to the room around them, "Look around. This room, this house. These two wonderful people living here. They took me in after I got out of jail."

Judy and Nick both looked behind them to see the old Fennec Fox standing beside his wife in the doorway.

"They visited me every week. Told me stories, taught me to read. And when I was released, they gave me a home. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for them," she added.

Silence filled the room. Neither Nick nor Judy had the words to break it. That is, until Judy came to the singular conclusion that this couldn't be the one they were looking for.

"Thank you for your time. We'll get back to you," she said, standing up with Nick following suit.

All five individuals walked back out to the front door together. Nick and Judy stood right outside it as they said their final goodbyes.

"Thanks again, and we're sorry to have bothered you," Nick said.

"It's no problem. Anything to help the law go a bit smoother," the wife said, but paused and looked closely at Nicks face, "I'm sorry, but I can't help but think I've seen your face before. Do I know you?"

"Nope, you've got me confused with someone else. C'mon Judy," Nick quickly said before pulling his partner away.

He rushed them straight out to their car and before a moment could pass, they were driving down the road.

"Alright, so it's not her. Who's next?"

Judy went straight to checking the list.

"Alright, we're going downtown. Miguel Bandito, the raccoon."

Nick and Judy went through the entire day going and to all five of the workers with criminal records, but still came up empty handed. None of their stories were as emotional as Kate's, but not a single one of them had any reason to steal the items which turned up missing. None of them were hurting too bad for money, and each of them had some strong motivation not to return to their criminal ways. Nick and Judy were stumped when they returned to the station. They both slumped into their chairs, not knowing where to go or what to do.

"Alright, so all of the criminals working at Dessert Depot are innocent. Now what?" Judy asked.

"Well, if all the guilty have been proven innocent, maybe the innocent can be proven guilty," Nick replied.

"That gives us eleven candidates, assuming the culprit even is a worker," she said, taking out the original list of all the workers and handing it to him.

He took a few silent moments to look over the list, and when those moments were up, his face took on a hardened look.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

"What was the name of that missing wolf?"

"Winston something," she replied.

"Winston Philips?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, our missing mammal is also an employee," he replied, handing her the list while pointing out the name.

After reading the name, she immediately hopped down from her seat, "We've gotta tell Bogo!"

Together, they rushed in the direction of his office, bursting through the door in a mad rush.

"Sir, we found something you need to look at!" Judy exclaimed.

Before any more words could be spoken, everything froze. Both Nick and Judy stood transfixed, staring at the chief of police as he wiped clean and oiled a black metal weapon. They watched him clean and load a Makarov pistol, placing it in a leather holster.

"What is it?" he asked, standing from his seated position.

Judy couldn't find the words to speak; she could only stare at the gun and holster being placed on Bogo's belt.

"The case you gave us about the missing hardware. We checked all of the employees at the store with criminal records, all of them were clean. But when I looked at the list of other employees, I saw the name Winston Philips," Nick explained slowly, tearing his eyes away from the sidearm.

"The wolf reported missing?" he asked, his attention being peaked.

"Yes sir."

Bogo quickly walked around the two officers, making his way to the door. Through every move he made, Judy's eyes never left the weapon holstered at his side.

"Sir," she blurted, stopping him from leaving the room. He turned to face her with a questioning look in his eyes. She raised a single hand and pointed at the gun, "What's that for?"

He glanced down at the weapon for a brief moment, "It's just a precaution."

Without further discussion, he was gone. Judy was so confused, and couldn't shake a terrible feeling in her gut.

"Come on, we better get back to work," Nick said, dragging her back out to their desks.

Bogo, on the other hand, was in the process of calling out this new information out on the radio, for every officer on the case. He himself was on his way to Sahara Square, straight for Dessert Depot. He didn't even bother asking for directions; he went straight back to the office of the manager, who was quite surprised to see the brutish officer enter the room.

"What are you doing here? I already gave everything I knew to the other-"

"Winston Philips, one of your floor workers, was reported missing early this morning," Bogo interrupted.

"Oh my, that's terrible," he replied

"I need you to tell me all you can about him."

"Well, he was one of my best workers. Strong willed, always getting the job done. He hated to fail, almost like failure was his worst fear. Nothing stopped him from succeeding, so I knew I could always count on him," he said.

"What about recently? Did you notice him acting any different?" Bogo asked.

"Well, for the past week he seemed to be getting more and more tired. He told me he wasn't sleeping well, and he looked more run down each day. He clocked out early yesterday, saying he had an errand to run," he explained.

"Well, it seems that errand stopped him from coming home at all-"

They were both silenced by the sound of Bogo's radio blaring.

"Officers respond, all officers on the missing mammal case, we've got a 187. Report, west alley at the docks. Repeat, 187 at the west alley at the docks."

Bogo's eyes filled with dread at the words he heard.

"What's 187?" the manager asked.

"Winston isn't coming home at all. He's been murdered."

 **Well, that was fun. I'm pretty much binge-writing right now, so I'll be picking up right after I post. Leave me a review!**


	10. Criminal Plot

**Only one review. And I believe I'm meeting its request to post the next chapter quickly. Enjoy, and leave a review!**

Chapter 10

Judy and Nick also heard the announcement over the radio and couldn't believe what they were hearing. At the site of the crime, many officers were already arriving. Officers and detectives were all over the area, taking pictures and blocking the public off from the area. The site was officially declared a crime scene by the time Bogo arrived, and without a moment's hesitation, he rushed into the alley. The sight was sickening, but it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. On the ground surrounded by a pool of blood was a wolf, Winston Philips, with lacerations covering his body. Recklessly discarded to the right of the corpse was an antique spear; the same spear stolen two days prior from Sharp Fitness & Aikido.

"Detective, what is going on here?" he asked, grabbing the attention of one of the on-sight detectives holding a camera; the same detective which was investigating the theft of the spear.

"Honestly sir, I'm not sure. The body is sadistically mutilated. Throat cut open, body torn apart. It's ugly," she replied.

"What do we know?"

"Well, all we've really got is the spear. No other evidence was left. No fur, no blood, no fingerprints on the weapon. Nothing," she said.

Bogo was about to speak again, but he was silenced by the sound of feet quickly running on scene; the feet of a bunny and fox. Bogo turned just in time to see Judy stop in place, mortified by the scene laid out in front of her.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed, before quickly turning away.

Nick quickly pulled her close, hiding her face from the blood and gore. Bogo let out a sigh; stressed as he was, he knew when it was time to take it down a notch.

"Officer Hopps, maybe you shouldn't be here," He said.

"No!" She exclaimed, breaking free from Nick, "I'm fine."

Gathering her courage, she tentatively turned back around to face the crime scene. She was still horrified, but drove herself past it by focusing on the task at hand. She gasped again, however, when she saw the face of the wolf lying dead on the ground.

"I know him," she stated, taking a few more steps forward.

"How?" Bogo asked, rushing to her side quickly followed by the detective.

"When I…when I went rogue and spent half the day in the gym to watch the classes, two wolves entered and tried to get memberships. Ark kicked them out, and this was one of them," she replied.

Bogo grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face the two of them, "I need you to tell us exactly what happened in that gym."

"He and his buddy came in, and Ark said that if everything checked out, he would get them their paperwork to apply for a membership. In the middle of his Aikido class, they both began laughing. They said that his class was a joke; that they should be demanding respect from enemies through violence. They laughed at him, and he refused to give them a membership. He escorted them out when Winston became violent," Judy explained.

Bogo took a few moments to think before sharing a knowing glance with the detective, who looked forlorn but nodded at the chief.

"Coldmen!" he called out, and from the crowd of officers, Angelica ran out.

"Yes sir?"

"Come with me. We're going to finish this," he said, and they began to walk off together.

"Where are you going?" Nick asked.

"We're going to arrest that sad excuse for a Zootopian!" Bogo replied angrily.

Judy immediately rushed in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

"On what charges?" she demanded.

"What else?" he replied, motioning to the corpse behind him.

"What evidence do you have?" Nick asked, moving to stand beside Judy.

"A weapon registered to his family as the murder weapon, for starters."

"A weapon reported stolen!" Judy countered.

"Officer Hopps," the detective interjected, grabbing all of their attention, "There was no trace of any animal accept him in his gym. Not a trace of DNA on this crime scene. Who else knows exactly what to hide, knows exactly what the police would be looking for?"

Judy stood, searching for any argument against this.

"He had plenty of motive. Winston insulted and embarrassed him and his way of living. It's easy enough to deduce that he staged the break in to his gym, took the spear, got his revenge, and was gone without a trace. Nobody else has that kind of training, nor the experience of so personally killing another animal. I'm sorry, but your friend is guilty," she added.

With that said, Bogo tried to walk forward again, but again Judy blocked him off.

"You know as well as I do that he isn't capable of this," she said

"What do you know of him?" Bogo shouted.

"It's because of him that I lost my father, and it's because of him that I am scarred for life. I saw a brutal, savage killing as a little girl. Now he's finally getting put away," Angelica added angrily before shoving Judy out of the way. She would have fallen to the ground if it weren't for Nick catching her.

The two watched Bogo and Angelica drive away in a police cruiser, helpless to stop them and save their friend from a life in prison.

"We have to have missed something," Nick stated, "Ark couldn't have done this."

"What?" Judy asked, confused.

Without giving an answer, Nick left the crime scene with Judy in tow. They went straight to their car and straight back to the station. The sun was getting low as they say down at their desks, looking through every note they had taken, searching through everything they had. A half hour had passed and they still found nothing. Absolutely nothing to prove the innocence of their ally. They froze in place when the front door opened, and led in wearing hand cuffs was the convicted Siberian Tiger. Bogo and Angelica led him in, and his eyes remained low on the ground. They were filled with sadness. He was led back into the temporary holding cell area. Once locked up, Bogo and Angelica stood there staring at him, but he refused to make eye contact.

"Your trial will be tomorrow afternoon," Bogo stated bluntly.

Angelica walked out of the room, feeling satisfied, but Bogo didn't move.

"Why did you do it?" he asked.

Ark only turned his head.

"What more could you do to this city? You were the best of us. Now I can't stand to see you."

With no further words, Bogo stormed out. The cell hold filled with silence, but if you listen closely, you could hear teardrops rolling down the cheeks of the only prisoner and falling to the ground. Nick and Judy never went home that night. They were tirelessly working on a case to make proving Ark's innocence, but continued to come up empty handed.

"Maybe we can find him an alibi," Judy suggested.

"Nobody was with him at the time of the murder," Nick replied, "What about Mr. Bigs? He trusts him, maybe he'll-"

"Mr. Bigs is the most feared crime boss in the city. Would it surprise anyone to find out he trusts a murderer?" Judy interrupted.

Nick let out a sigh of frustration and sat back in his seat. Right as their silence fell, three people emerged from the cell area the same way they had come through the front door. Bogo and Angelica led Ark out of the station and to their car, and within minutes, they were gone. Judy sat forward and rested her head in her hands.

"Do you have any music you could play?" Nick asked.

Upon hearing Nicks request, Judy remembered that she had written down the song she had heard the lynx perform on the street. She said yes, and pulled out her notepad to quickly begin sifting through the pages. When she found the song, she quickly pulled up the music video on her Carrot Phone to play. As it began, she tossed her note pad down on her desk before resting her chin on her hands again. About halfway through the song, Judy glanced down at her note pad to find that it had opened to an older page when she tossed it. A page with only two names written on it. The names of the two cheetahs who had initially led them to Ark's gym, Jeff and Donny Reynolds.

She quickly took the notebook in hand. The names sounded very familiar. In a split second, she pulled out the list of employees that had no criminal record. Sure enough, one of the names on that list was Don Reynolds.

"Nick, look at this!" She exclaimed.

"What?" he asked, sitting up and scooting over to her.

"The cheetah brothers we met when we first went to Ark's gym. I wrote down their names, and one of them works at Dessert Depot," she explained.

"Wait a minute. What was the name of that rival crime boss?" Nick asked.

Both of their eyes met, and Judy's widened, "Carson Reynolds."

In her head, Judy was having an immense sequence of flashbacks. It started with meeting the Reynolds brothers.

 _"_ _What a jerk. We're citizens of this city too. He can't just throw us out like that," one of them said, causing the ears of Officer Hopps to perk up._

 _"_ _The right to refuse service. Try the right to be racist!" The other replied_

 _Being very procedural, Judy had her badge out to show as they approached the boys who couldn't have been older than 19. Of course, they immediately took notice and seemed nervous._

 _"_ _Judy Hopps, ZPD. How are you?" She asked in a very sweet tone_

 _"_ _Uh…fine. Can we help you?" replied the one in the flannel_

 _"_ _Funny you should ask," Inquired Nick, "but we are looking in to a nearby business which has been denying business to a lot of people. We couldn't help overhearing your conversation and were wondering if you had any information you could give us"_

 _"_ _Well, the business is just down the road. It's a fitness gym, which also offers lessons in something called Aikido, whatever that is," the cheetah in basketball shorts replied_

 _"_ _Some kind of fighting class. We wanted to get a membership, cause the price was amazing, but the guy who runs the place won't let hardly any predators in," the other added_

 _Judy was fast at work writing all of the given information down on her little notepad._

 _"_ _What can you tell us about him?" Judy asked_

 _"_ _Well, he's a Siberian Tiger who drives up from Tundra Town every morning," the fully dressed one replied_

 _"_ _How do you know that?" Nick asked_

 _"_ _There's always snow on his car," the other cheetah replied_

 _"_ _Can I get your names, in case we have any more questions?" requested Judy_

 _"_ _Yeah, Jeff Reynold, and this is my brother Donny," the cheetah in the flannel replied_

Judy's flashback then switched to the security cam footage of the break in to Ark's gym. Seeing the two figures dressed completely in black do the things they did. Their size was a perfect match, but their skill? They were nineteen at the oldest, it didn't make sense. They had no criminal record. Unless…unless they were trained by the second greatest crime boss in the city, also known as their father. She then remembered what the detective had told her at the crime scene the previous day.

 _"_ _Officer Hopps," the detective interjected, grabbing all of their attention, "There was no trace of any animal accept him in his gym. Not a trace of DNA on this crime scene. Who else knows exactly what to hide, knows exactly what the police would be looking for?"_

 _Judy stood, searching for any argument against this._

 _"_ _He had plenty of motive. Winston insulted and embarrassed him and his way of living. It's easy enough to deduce that he staged the break in to his gym, took the spear, got his revenge, and was gone without a trace. Nobody else has that kind of training, nor the experience of so personally killing another animal. I'm sorry, but your friend is guilty," she added._

 _WHO ELSE HAS THAT TRAINING_

"He was framed," Nick blurted, evidently coming to the same conclusion.

"But why?" Judy asked.

"You remember the story Ark told us? When officer Coldmen threatened Carson's operations, he was hunted down. They wanted him out of the way," Nick explained.

"But why go to all that trouble? Why not just take Ark out? That would be the simplest way, unless…" Judy paused.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"Unless Ark isn't the only one they want to get rid of," she finished.

"Who else would be that big a threat to them?"

Judy's eyes widened again, "The only two officers who were involved the same way Ark was."

Nick saw where she was going with that and his ears fell, "And they needed to get them all in the same place."

"In the same car."

 **DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! Things are getting clear now, aren't they? To my conspiracy theorist, now you have a good idea of how close you were to the truth, but there is still a great deal more to this story. It's not even close to over yet, trust me. I know it seems like it's going really fast, but it is a criminal justice mystery type thing, and you've seen how quickly they go through those on TV. 30 minutes gives you an entire murder case solved. Well, there you go everyone. See you in the next chapter!**


	11. The Pain of Brotherhood

**My conspiracy theorist is happy XD but trust me, there's a lot more of this mystery to uncover that I haven't even come close to revealing. Keep a sharp eye! Alright everyone, enjoy!**

Chapter 11

"Clawhauser, mobilize all available units!" Judy commanded as they ran by the front counter.

"What's going on?" He asked, nearly dropping his doughnut.

"Bogo is in danger. We need to intercept his cruiser, fast!" Nick replied as they burst out the door and almost literally leaped into their car.

With sirens blaring, they sped down the road far beyond the speed limit. With Judy behind the wheel, Nick grabbed his radio and attempted to warn their endangered chief.

"Chief Bogo, come in, Bogo!" He called into the radio repeatedly.

Bogo's radio was blaring static-filled noise. He was attempting to ignore it, but eventually it became too much.

"What is it?" He asked angrily as he held down the button to talk.

Nick's voice replied, "Chief, you've gotta listen to me. Ark was framed, this is a mistake-"

"I'm not going to have this discussion anymore, fox!" Bogo interjected.

"No, you don't understa-" he shut off his radio.

"Ugh, he turned his radio off. We gotta move!" Nick commanded.

Judy nodded and accelerated to and even faster speed. Though Bogo had turned his radio off, the urgency in Nick's voice didn't go unnoticed by Angelica, and his first sentence wasn't unheard by Ark.

"Sir, maybe something's actually wrong," Officer Coldmen said.

"Nothing is wrong. It's another attempt by insubordinates to keep a criminal out of prison," Bogo replied sternly.

"Bogo, these are Zootopia police officers. You heard his voice, he was serious!" she said, turning in her chair to face him.

"Are you seriously suggesting that this mammal is innocent?"

"You know there's nothing I'd like to see more than his face behind bars, but we need to listen to our fellow officers," she replied.

"I second that," Ark interjected.

"Shut up!" Bogo yelled back at him, before pointing at Angelica, "You need to remember what he did to us, to this city."

As they talked, Ark began to get a bad feeling. Eventually, they came to an intersection where he glanced out the driver's side window just in time to see a black car speeding down the road straight at them.

"Look out!" He shouted, but far too late.

The car impacted a fraction of a second later, sending them spiraling down across the road. When the car finally skidded to a stop, all three present in the vehicle were groggy and dazed. Bogo shook his head for a moment before opening the driver's side door and falling out of the car. A few seconds later, he managed to get to his hands and knees.

"Are you two alright?" He asked, his voice pained.

"Fine, sir," Coldmen replied.

"I've felt worse," Ark followed.

Angelica sat back up in her seat, same as Ark, and the both tried to rid their heads of the dizziness. Suddenly, Angelica's car door opened and an orange spotted hand reached in and covered her mouth with a chloroform-soaked cloth. She tried to scream, but it was muffled.

"Bogo!" Ark shouted.

Bogo looked up just in time to see the unconscious leopard being dragged away by a cheetah.

"No!" he screamed as he stood and tried to chase them down.

Fast as Bogo was, he would never have been able to keep up with a cheetah, but he never got the chance to try. Right as he got clear of the damaged police cruiser, another orange spotted limb flew up and impacted him in the chest, knocking him backwards and to the ground. Another cheetah, identical to the first. Ark tried desperately to get one of the doors open, but with his hands cuffed, he could only kick the doors and hope they broke open. Bogo tried to stand back up, but a kick to the stomach knocked him down again. He tried again, but this time he was knocked out cold. With a malicious grin, that cheetah also took off to their car, and within moments were out of sight. Almost as soon as they were, sirens became audible and a seeming army of police cars appeared in the intersection. The first to reach the damaged car was the quick-footed Judy Hopps, soon followed by a swarm of other officers who all went straight to Bogo. Nick and Judy first sought to release the tiger.

"Ark, what happened?" Judy asked as she opened the door and helped him out of the car.

"Carson Reynolds sons…they attacked. They took Angelica," He replied, rubbing his wrists after getting the handcuffs off.

Judy and Nick were silent. They were sure that if their chief was caught, all three in the car would be killed. Now, to find that one of them had only been kidnapped relieved but also greatly confused them. The next day, Bogo was in the hospital. Almost every officer was on Search and Rescue, and for the time being, the murder charges against Ark were dropped. In the hospital, Nick and Judy were sitting at Bogo's bedside. Ark was standing outside the door, out of sight. When Bogo came to, both Nick and Judy came to full attention.

"Hopps…what happened?" he asked, raising a hand to his throbbing head.

"You were in a car wreck. Someone attacked you. How much do you remember?" Judy asked in reply, grabbing his other hand reassuringly.

"I remember driving. We…Angelica and I, we were on our way to the court house. We were taking Ark to his trial."

"Yes, good. Anything else?" she asked, worry in her eyes.

"I turned off my radio…there was so much noise. And then…then Angelica and I started arguing. I can't remember why. Then the car wrecked, and…" his eyes widened, filled with grief, and it was clear he remembered, "Oh god no."

Bogo raised both hands to his face, covering his eyes and hiding the tears beginning to form.

"They took her, they took Angel!" He exclaimed, his voice stricken with sadness.

"Shh, Shh, it's alright," Judy said softly, trying to comfort the obviously broken man.

Ark stood by the door feeling every ounce of pain Bogo did. Listening to every word as if he spoke it himself.

"No, it's my fault, I should have listened to her. I should've listened to you!"

"No," said the previously silent Nick, "Carson Reynolds planned this. The murder, the burglary, the missing hardware, everything. This is not your fault."

"Carson Reynolds?" Bogo asked, his voice calming slightly.

Both Judy and Nick nodded, telling him that it was in fact the crime boss from all those years ago. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again.

"Where's Ark?" he asked.

"He's outside," Nick replied.

"Could you bring him in?"

Nick nodded and went to retrieve the Siberian Tiger. Ark nervously entered the room and approached the bed Bogo was laying in.

"Give us a minute," Bogo commanded.

Without a moment's hesitation, the two officers left the room. Ark took a seat in the chair which was once occupied by Judy and leaned in close.

"Did you know he was back?" Bogo asked. Ark nodded. "So that's what brought you back after all these years. You were here to help and all I did was hurt you. After everything that happened, you still came back to finish what we had started and I threw it in your face," Ark remained silent, "I have no right to ask this of you, after everything I've done. All the pain I've caused you, all the grief I've given…"

Bogo's voice was quivering in guilt and sadness. He couldn't find the motivation to continue speaking, until a friendly hand on his shoulder silenced him. When he looked, Ark was smiling warmly down at him. A warm smile which Bogo hadn't seen in many years.

"It's not about how much pain someone causes you," he said, and watched as Bogo allowed the slightest bit of hope enter his eyes, "It's about whether or not you're willing to take the pain for that person."

Without hesitation, Ark leaned down and gave Bogo a hug like none he'd felt in a very long time. Not the hug of a friend, but the embrace of a brother.

"Bring her back, please. She's all care about," Bogo begged as they broke apart.

Ark nodded, and after sharing a few moment's glance, left the room. Judy and Nick were both waiting for him outside.

"Good news," Judy said, "He's only got a mild concussion. He just needs to rest here for a few days."

Without a reply, Ark made way for the exit of the hospital with Nick and Judy in close pursuit.

"So what do we do now?" Nick asked.

"We're gonna get Angel back, and take down Reynolds for good."

 **A good bit shorter than my normal chapters, but I figured this was an epic moment to end it. Leave me a review!**


	12. I Want To Play A Game

**Whew, back again! After my binge-write I got slammed with reviews. My conspiracy theorist is very happy about how close he was, and other readers are happy with the story in general. And I'm very glad I'm getting so much positive feedback, but you should all stop being so nice. As an author, poet, and artist, constructive criticism is my ambrosia. I seek to improve, so if anyone see's anywhere I could do better, pointing it out and giving me a tip would be great. Not everyone can be a great writer, but everyone can be a good reader. Everyone knows when the reading is smooth, and when reading is rough. I love getting those kinds of tips. Alright, read on!**

Chapter 12

The two officers followed Ark out to the parking lot of the hospital. They went straight to Nick and Judy's police car, but Ark didn't get in. Judy saw him hesitate and stopped, but Nick was oblivious and tried to get in, only to be pulled back by the pretentious tiger.

"What's wrong?" Judy asked.

Ark began circling the vehicle, looking it over closely, "No soul police car belongs to any soul officer. They get switched around day by day."

"And your point is?" Nick inquired.

"I'm just wondering how they knew exactly which car to track down," he replied, getting down and looking under the car.

Very quickly, he spotted a flashing green light behind the exhaust pipe and upon pulling it off, stood and presented it to the two officers.

"When in reality, they didn't know at all," Judy deduced, identifying the object as a tracker before jumping onto her radio, "All units be advised, we've located a tracking device behind the exhaust pipe of our car. We suspect there is one somewhere, possibly in the same location on every police vehicle."

"Wait, that still doesn't explain how they knew which car to track," Nick said.

"They had to have had someone at the station watching to see what car you, Bogo, and Angelica got in," Judy added.

"They've been watching us," Ark stated, before a look of realization came over his face, "Mr. Bigs."

Both Nick and Judy came to the same conclusion when he said that name.

"Get in, we've gotta move!" Nick exclaimed, rushing into the driver's seat of the vehicle.

The other two quickly followed, and with sirens blaring they rushed into Tundra Town and straight to Mr. Bigs' mansion. Ark was constantly trying to get him on the phone, but all he got was voicemail. When they passed through the front gate, it was obvious someone had already broken in. The steal gate was no longer attached, laying bent and broken in the snow on the side of the road. All three in the car looked ahead and saw that two black cars were still in front of the mansion, standing out amongst all the snow white cars Mr. Bigs prefers.

"They're still here," Ark said, "We've got to hurry."

The car hadn't even come to a complete stop before Ark left the vehicle, soon trailed by the two officers. As they approached the front door which was broken off at the handle and swung uncontrolled, Ark reached under the back of his pants and pulled out a black metal object which both Nick and Judy instantly recognized as a tool which neither one of them had used before: Ark's Glock 19. He entered the mansion with the gun pointed straight ahead, but remained as quiet as possible. With every door and every hallway, Ark would quickly glance in with his gun, finger ready to pull the trigger. As he peered into the fifth room, he leaped into action at what he saw. Held against the wall was one of the polar bears, Kevin, and was being choked by the forearm of a feline assailant dressed completely in black and wearing a mask. Kevin struggled against the strength of the big cat, but even as a polar bear, his brute strength was nothing compared to the obvious training the other had gone through.

"Kevin!" Ark exclaimed, running into the room and slamming the hilt of the gun against the head of the attacker, leaving him unconscious.

Nick and Judy went running into the room just in time to look at the door opposite the one they came in which led directly into Mr. Bigs' office to see three more masked figures, one of them dangling a small unconscious mouse over the open floor panel leading down into the icy waters. All three of them spotted Ark as he entered, and two of them ran out to attack. Judy and Nick rushed forward and stopped them before they could reach him, all four entering hand-to-hand combat. Ark immediately sprinted past them, making way straight for the masked figure holding up the unconscious Mr. Bigs. He only got halfway there before the fingers grasping the mouse's tail opened, and the limp body fell straight down into the ice cold waters.

"No!" Ark screamed, holstering his gun and diving through the missing floor panel, straight into the water.

He almost immediately found the body of Mr. Bigs which had been revived by the sudden cold water and lack of oxygen. Ark grabbed him as he struggled to find the surface, quickly pulling the thrashing mouse close to his warm body and bolting for the surface. By the time Ark and Mr. Bigs breached, Nick and Judy had already incapacitated the remaining assailants while the other Henchmen fled to their vehicles and left the premises with extreme haste.

"Is he alright?" Judy asked urgently, rushing to the side of Ark with Nick in tow.

"He's freezing. His body isn't used to these temperatures," Ark replied, quickly shoving Mr. Bigs inside his shirt and pressing the shivering mouse against his soft warm chest, "Mine is. He'll be alright."

Both the acting officers let out sighs of relief, glad to hear their friend was alright. They all then began tending to him in any and every way they could. Elsewhere, in an unknown part of Zootopia, a voice was crying out. A female voice, screaming for help in hopes that someone somewhere might hear her. Tied down to a chair, still clad in her police uniform, Angelica Coldmen was completely immobilized, and with a burlap sack over her head, she had no idea where she was. Her cries fell silent when she hear a metal door opening and the shuffling of feet. The sounds came from behind her, and without warning, the chair she was tied down to moved and shifted, turning to face the noises she hear.

"Who's there? You've no right to hold me here! I am an officer of the Zootopia Police Department, and I demand you let me go!" Angelica exclaimed, struggling against her ropes.

"Oh, I'm well aware of who you are, Ms. Coldmen," said a deep, rugged voice, "But I have no intension of releasing you."

Angelica froze. That voice…she knew that voice! She couldn't pin it down, but the way the voice sent a shiver down her spine. The cold emptiness it made her feel was a feeling she could never forget. Before she could speak, the sack over her head was pulled off and the sudden light blinded her. She spent a good few moments adjusting.

"Or maybe it would be better if I called you Angel," he said, just as her vision adjusted.

Angelica found that she was sitting in a large concrete room. The only light was a spotlight centered on her. She could barely make out the outline of the figure speaking to her who sat in a chair just outside the light, leaving his knees in but nothing else.

"What do you want from me?" She asked, nervously.

The figure then leaned in so his face came into view, revealing a large male cheetah with three scars going across his right eye, leaving that eye completely blind, "I want to play a game."

Those words spoken coldly triggered a montage of memories. She had just come home from school. _In the third grade, she was top of her class and was eager to show her dad her report card. Angel, as she was called when she was younger, wanted nothing more than to make her deceased mother proud by following in her father's footsteps and becoming a ZPD Officer, so she tried her hardest in school so her mom could see her succeed. But as she pranced through the front door into the apartment, the person sitting on the couch wasn't her father. They looked similar, but the man sitting on the wool sofa was an orange cheetah, not grey like her and her father. She tentatively approached when they made eye contact, entering the living room and stopping on the opposite side of the table which sat in front of the couch._

 _"_ _Who are you?" She asked, looking him up and down._

 _"_ _Hi, my name is Carson Reynolds. I'm…I'm a business man," he replied._

 _"_ _Where's my Daddy?"_

 _"_ _Oh, he's in the back room on the phone," he said, then pulled out a board game from under the table, "Would you like to play a game?"_

 _Seeing a good opportunity for fun, the innocent little girl nodded and moved over to sit left of Carson. She discovered that the game they would be playing was Sorry, her favorite. She played blue and Carson played red. Angel couldn't wipe the smile off her face; she was having so much fun, and this stranger was being so nice. It didn't take long for Billy to walk back into the front room._

 _"_ _Oh my! You're pulling ahead again!" Carson said as Billy entered._

 _Noticing the position of his daughter, Billy's face took on a forlorn look._

 _"_ _Daddy, I'm winning!" Angel said, excitedly._

 _"_ _That's wonderful, baby," Billy replied, feigning a smile, "So like I said, Carson, I have to refuse your, uh…generous…offer."_

 _Carson's face turned to very disappointed, and he replied while lifting Angel up and placing her in his lap, holding her down by the stomach, "Now that is disappointing."_

 _Angel tried to struggle, not having consented to this sudden activity and suddenly wasn't so happy to be around this stranger._

 _"_ _Let's play a different game, ok Angel?" he said, looking down at her face._

 _"_ _Let my daughter go!" Billy demanded, beginning to approach but freezing when Carson's claws came out and began poking into Angel's abdomen, making her cry in pain._

 _"_ _Now I was thinking Uno. You see, I've only got a few cards left. I would've won the game already, but you had to go and toss a few 'Take Four' Wild Cards down and put me behind. Luckily for you, the only cards I have left are 'Take Two's, so I'm gonna put all the cards in your hand. You choose what happens now," Carson spoke forcefully, "You turn over your entire supply of Hallucinogen to me and forget about helping that two-bit crime rat, and you're daughter gets to run to you for comfort from the scary cat. Would you like that, pumpkin?"_

 _"_ _Daddy!" Angel called out, tears flowing down her cheeks._

 _"_ _Like I said, I've only got 'Take Two's, so I don't decide which cards you get. It could be complete chance. Maybe your daughter doesn't make it out of this situation, or maybe she comes home with me. I do hear, however, that males outside the city are much more primal, and would pay a hefty price for such a young female body to use," he added, causing both the faces of Angel and Billy both turned to horror, "I'll give you a few days to de-ARGH!"_

 _Carson tried to stand with Angel in his arm, but the little girl was not planning on going anywhere with this stranger. In a last-ditch effort to escape, she flailed her hand up, claws extended, and smacked Carson across the face, causing him to drop her and fall back clenching his eye. Billy wasted no time in moving forward, attacking and throwing the pained feline out of the apartment. Carson quickly ran off, leaving Billy to comfort his crying daughter._

"Reynolds," Angelica said, breaking the silence.

"Now she remembers!" Carson said, clapping his hands, "Now, I want to play a game. Let's play Bingo. I love Bingo!"

"I don't want to play any of your games, Reynolds!"

"Awe, come on Angel!" Carson said, scooting forward and placing his paw on her shoulder, digging his claws into her flesh without warning and causing her to cry out, "Be friendlier; call me Carson."

"Reynolds, Carson, I don't care, just take your hand off of me!" Angelica demanded. Carson obliged.

"Let's try this again. I love Bingo! And your line is 'me too, Carson. I'd love to play!'" Carson said, leaning in and listening for the desired words. Angelica remained silent. In response, he reached out again and dragged his claws down her arm. "Say the line!"

"Agh! Me too, Carson. I'd love to play!" Angelica said quickly and painfully, making the abusive feline stop his actions.

"Oh, I'm so glad! But you see, my version of Bingo is a little different. You see, I really hate losing, so your entire goal is to make sure I win! I've got a few questions to ask, and every time I get the answers I want, I get to mark one more spot. I win when all my questions are answered. Every time you refuse to answer, you get to mark a spot, but like I said, I'm very competitive. I may not take it too well if you get points. Shall we begin?" Carson asked.

Reluctantly, Angelica replied, "Yes Carson, I'd love to."

 **Shorter chapter, long time between updates, I can explain though! Some major shit has been happening in my life, starting with catching my brother with drugs, followed by my sister getting arrested, all on top of finals week next week, so things are nuts! But fear not, faithful readers. Summer vacation is nearly upon me, and with it comes a lot of free time on my hands to write. I hope the personality of Carson is being well portrayed, and even more I hope this chapter is decent quality. PLEASE leave a review!**


	13. Interogation

**Few! First day of finals done, possibly the second and third by the time I manage to post this. English, Art, and Drama are now out of the way. Decided that while the family is away, I can sit and write for a while. Ease some stress, that sort of thing. My only review thus far is from my conspiracy theorist, and once again, he never ceases to amaze. There isn't much he didn't pick up on, so that's that. Shall we continue? I think we shall!**

Chapter 13

From outside the large room which held Angelica and Carson Reynolds, a female voice could be hurt grunting proceeding the sound of an impact. A punch, a yelp of pain. Inside, Angelica looked battered and bruised. Blood oozed from a cut on her left temple, and dripped from the corners of her mouth. Carson looked less than happy as he pulled back from yet another punch.

"I'm going to ask you again, Angel. Where would they take Mr. Big, and how did they know my people were coming?" Carson asked angrily, pacing back and forth in front of Angelica.

"I told you…I don't know…what you're talking about," she replied weakly.

"Don't lie to me!" Carson screamed, smacking her across the face, "My patience is wearing thin and I won't lose again! I had control of the entire city, it was mine! All mine, until that rat showed up. He took over the drug market, cut me off completely, and your people helped him. You know a hell of a lot more than you're telling me, Angel, so you better start talking. Tell me what you know."

Angel spit in his face, "Go to hell."

"My dear child," he said, leaning down, "Where do you think I came from?"

After the skirmish in the mansion, Judy, Nick, and Ark took Mr. Big and fled from the estate, taking as many of Mr. Big' workers as they could along with one of the tied up felines draped in black. Instead of going to any of their homes, or even the police station, they group traveled to the Rainforest District, where the polar bears said was a safe house. In the base of a hallow tree in Vine & Tujunga was a small home, holding only a bed and bathroom, but it served well enough. Mr. Big was laid down to rest while the tied-up feline was placed in the corner.

"Now what?" Judy asked, looking over at Ark who stared intently at the unconscious henchman.

"When he wakes up, we're gonna find out who he is and why they're after Mr. Big," he replied, reaching out and removing the mask covering the felines face, revealing an animal none of them had seen in person; none except Ark himself.

"What is he?" Nick asked, looking closely at the tan-stippled black form before him.

"Jaguarondi. A sub-species of Puma, very useful and plentiful, Reynolds' choice henchman species. Just like Mr. Big likes Polar Bears for their strength, Carson likes Jaguarondi for their speed, numbers, and loyalty," Ark explained.

Just then, the unconscious cat began to stir, and with a groan, lifted his hanging head to look at the three figures staring him down.

"I won't talk, so you might as well kill me," he said, narrowing his eyes directly at Judy.

"I dissa-"

"Actually," Ark said, silencing Judy, "I wasn't planning on interrogating you. I'm sure you have family, a wife and kids, can't kill you. I actually intend to release you."

"What?" Everyone in the room said simultaneously.

"Yes, surprising isn't it? I have a message I want you to deliver to Carson Reynolds, mister…?"

"Conner. Jeffery Conner," he replied, looking lost.

"Jeff, I want you to tell Carson that we aren't going to stop. That he can't win, and this time I will personally see him behind bars," Ark explained.

"Are you serious, bro? You can't beat him. He has hard resources. Technological edges over you pea brains, and he doesn't know how to lose," he stated bluntly.

"I doubt it. He was shut out of those resources when he lost last time. What makes you think his drive for revenge is any stronger than my drive to protect my friends?"

"Because, bonehead, he's stronger than you to begin with. And when he gains control of the crime world again, you'll be doomed. His drive is backed by a lust for power, and he'll do anything to get it. All you have is some touchy-feely crap. And put your doubts away, his resources are more obvious than you think. You cops are just too stupid to see them," he explained, a grin on his face as he felt triumphant.

"So he doesn't just want to get back at us. He wants to take over," Ark said, bringing Nick, Judy, and Jeffery to attention, "Judy, where was that hardware store you said was missing stock?"

"Uh…Sahara Square," Judy replied.

"Whoa, wait, hold on a second. You don't know anything!" Jeff shouted, realizing he'd been conned.

"The exact place where Carson Reynolds used to manage a hardware store. What a coincidence! So, he's driven by revenge and an unhealthy obsession with control, but I'm going to guess he didn't want to make the mistake of ruling out police intervention again, so he tagged all the cars and got eyes on the inside. He tried to take out anyone who could be a threat and took hostage the only remaining officer that might know anything about the Hallucinogen case to…figure out how far the investigation has gone? Jeffery, you are the man. All I need is the location of his new HQ and I can deliver my message myself," Ark deduced, causing Jeffery to hang his head in anger and defeat.

Ark turned towards Judy and Nick, who both stared at him in amazement, "What? I know how to interrogate. I was Bogo's superior, you know."

"Yeah, but that…that was amazing," Judy praised.

"So what's Carson's next move?" Nick asked

"He needs an edge over us, and he won't move until he gets one. That's why he took Officer Coldmen. He's trying to get some amount of information out of her so that he can plot out every move we make before we even make them. What he doesn't know is that we know. So, Officer Hopps, without his location, we have to draw him out. How do you propose we do that?" Ark asked, looking right at Judy.

"Ark, this isn't the time for learning on the job," Nick stated, urging him not to further train them when lives were at stake.

"No, I understand," Judy interjected, "We need to find a foothold, something to use to start pushing back on him. We have to cut off his resources, and the one we know of is in Sahara Square. The Desert Depot, you said he used to manage?"

"Bingo. Kevin, keep an eye on our dear friend Jeff. Officers, I hope you won't mind if we make a stop by my house. I have an old uniform, and it's time to dust it off," Ark replied, before stepping cautiously out of the safe house.

They went straight to the police car which had brought them this far, and began the drive back to Ark's home. The drive, which began in the evening, took them well into the night. Judy ended up passing out in the back seat, though Nick was much less relaxed.

"Something on your mind?" Ark asked, glancing over at the edgy fox.

"Last time this happened, you said someone was killed. An officer, one of the best, right?" Nick asked in reply.

"Bill Coldmen. A good officer and a friend," he replied.

"All the death that has happened, all the violence, the bloodshed. All of it because he has come back. He really isn't afraid to hurt people, to kill, if it means getting what he wants. He doesn't care."

Ark let out a sigh, "There was a reason Hallucinogen wasn't approved by the city. Yes, it is the only suppresser and cure for a rare disorder, but that's because the disorder that it works. Mr. Big's daughter couldn't produce the enzyme Serotonin. It wasn't coded in her DNA. Not only does Hallucinogen provide that enzyme, but also provides DNA blueprints for her body to use to begin producing the enzyme for itself. It cured his daughter, but Carson Reynolds was also using the drug to make himself less mentally stable. Serotonin has massive effects on brain wave activity, and Reynolds use to have a very guilty conscience. He couldn't handle blood or death, but he still really loved power. So to make himself more comfortable with death, he used Hallucinogen to create a huge instability in his brain. He produces many times more Serotonin than is normal, so he doesn't care what happens so long as he gets what he wants. If he doesn't get that, he'll do anything to make it right for him. He doesn't care who gets hurt or killed in the process. But I get the feeling you aren't worried about yourself," Ark explained.

Without responding, Nick glanced into the rear view mirror above the dashboard to look back and see Judy, still peacefully asleep, or so it seemed. Unknown to the two predators in the front, she was mainly dozing, but still listening in to their conversation.

"I'm scared she'll get hurt. We have hand-to-hand training, but I get the feeling we're going to see more than a few claws."

"I won't let that happen, and neither will you. Judy, Angelica, Mr. Big, everyone is coming out of this because I'm putting Reynolds down before he can hurt anyone else," Ark reassured him.

In the back seat, Judy didn't know how to feel. She had no idea that Nick was so scared, and that warmed her heart, but she also didn't realize what Ark really planned to do. When they finally pulled into Ark's driveway, Judy faked waking up, stretching just long enough to be the last one out of the car. She and Nick both followed Ark inside and into his living room, watching curiously as he opened a cabinet above his inactive fireplace. It revealed a safe, which he quickly opened to reveal many things within. The first items he pulled out were a blue long-sleeve ZPD shirt, a bullet proof vest, black pants, and an old belt.

"You might want to turn around," Ark said, before immediately beginning to strip right in front of the two.

Nick reflexively reached over to cover Judies eyes right as Ark's shirt fell to the ground, soon followed by his jeans. His underwear remained, thankfully, but both animals kept their eyes closed until given the OK by the previously nude tiger. When their eyes opened, they stared in awe. The bullet proof vest beneath the blue shirt made him look bulky, and the added tie made him look even more imposing an officer than Bogo. The final touches were to attach the holster of his Glock 19 to his belt and holster the gun, followed by pocketing a few loaded magazines.

"When you talked to the manager at Desert Depot, what did he say?" Ark asked, leading the two back out to the car.

"He talked about what he was missing. He gave us names, anything we needed, so I don't think he was involved. I think the ones giving him access were his kids," Judy replied.

"Alright, so here's the plan: our goal is to get in there, talk to the manager. Get anyone with the last name Reynolds off the job. We need to be careful, because if one of them is there, if they even see us, they're gone. Time to bottleneck this bastard," he said, taking his place in the car.

 **Shorter chapter, but summer vacation is here so updates will be much faster! Summer vacation had been here for a weak now, but my sister got arrested so my time has been taken up. Another quick mention, I am now a certified ZPD officer! My mom was so proud. No better way to become an officer than by solving missing traffic cone cases on Facebook, am I right? Please leave a review!**


	14. Trouble at the Depot

**Pretty late right now, but I'm not really tired so I'm gonna start this chapter. I didn't really leave much for my theorist to pick up on and predict the future of the story, so he didn't have much more to say on the matter. Time to pick things up!**

Chapter 14

Angelica Coldmen had seen better days. She looked battered, bruised, and for lack of a better term, mauled. Her malnourished body looked thin; she was only given enough food and water to survive. Thus far, Reynolds had managed to get none of the information he wanted out of her. The true reason for this was that she truly knew nothing that he wanted, but in the eyes of Carson, she was simply strong willed. After failing to answer yet another question, Angelica clenched her eyes, ready to receive another blow, but instead, her throat was grappled by a paw with claws extended, threatening to pierce and cut into her vulnerable neck.

"I'm losing," he said, sounding both furious and hysterical at the same time, "I told you, I don't like to lose. Tell me now, everything you know!"

"I don't know…anything," she finally explained, making Reynolds tighten his grip, breaking the skin of her neck but not going very deep inside.

"You had better get real useful real quick, Angel, or that name is gonna define you a whole lot more!"

Angelica prepared to speak, but soon discovered that in his unstable rage, Carson had begun to choke her. She could neither speak nor breathe, and quickly began to struggle. Thirty seconds, forty, forty five, none kept track of how much time passed, but as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, just before she passed out, one of Reynold's Jaguarondi henchmen burst into the room.

"Sir! There's a situation at the Depot!" he said, stopping a few meters away.

Reynolds quickly released Angelica, who dropped back to her chair gasping and coughing, "What is it?" he asked, turning and stepping towards the dark feline.

"Sir, three officers were seen walking in. Don is there, he sent the report, but he can't get out."

"Get Jeff, take a team, and get down there!" Reynolds commanded.

"Which Jeff?" the Jaguarondi asked, causing Carson to angrily narrow his eyes.

"Which one do you think, you imbecil! My son Jeff!" he yelled.

"Sir, he already left. He took off right after we received the report," he replied.

"Did he take anyone?"

"No, he left too fast for any of us to follow."

"Ugh, that idiotic bastard!" Reynold screamed angrily.

"One more thing sir. The officers that are in the Depot," the dark car began.

"Yes, what about them?"

"One of them is Fanger, sir. Officer Ark Fanger."

Carson's face took on a look of horror. His eyes widened, and he quickly pushed past his henchmen, "Get to the cars, now!"

At the Desert Depot, Ark was already inside the office talking to the manager. Nick and Judy were both standing outside the door, closely observing every detail. They had a perfect view of every exit, so if Don Reynolds was working that day, they would see him. A few moments later, Ark exited the office followed by the manager.

"I'm truly sorry to have to do this to you. I'm sure your superiors will understand," Ark said.

"Not a problem. Anything to help the ZPD. I'm just surprised Don is suspected of this. He's always been such a great kid. I don't know why I can't hail him on the radio," the manager replied.

"Sometimes, it's just not possible to understand how people truly are," Ark replied, but fell silent as movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He turned just in time to see a familiar cheetah in a work uniform glance over his shoulder, before taking off in a desperate sprint for the door.

"There!" Ark exclaimed, pointing at him before taking off after him, "Move, move! Get out of the way!"

Ark shoed away all animals carelessly shopping, causing quite the panic as they screamed and yelped, dodging and some even diving into an aisle. Nick and Judy were both soon taking part in the chase, but neither could keep up with Ark as he closed in on the cheetah. Though he was fast, Ark had much more stamina. Don couldn't keep up his run for long, and not far past the door, he was tackled to the ground by the white tiger.

"Get off me!" Don yelled, struggling as he was forced onto his back.

"Stop resisting," Ark commanded, pinning his arms behind his back.

"Donny!" another voice rang out.

Ark turned to face the voice just in time to see another, older cheetah, only a few years the senior of the one held beneath him. The second Ark spotted him we a second too late, for the charging feline had already raised a gun and fired, the bullet landing Ark square in the chest. The force of the bullet sent him flying back, but there was no time for the Reynolds brothers to escape. Nick and Judy both burst from the door, Judy rushing out and leaping at the cat with the weapon, planting both feet to the side of his head and knocking him out cold. Nick went straight to Don, who had barely moved, and pinned him back down, this time cuffing his hands. Judy had also already restrained Jeff.

"Ark, you alright?" Nick asked, looking over at the knocked-down tiger.

Ark groaned, sitting up with a pained look on his face, "You know," he began, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal the battered bullet proof vest beneath it, "These things may block the bullet but it still hurts like hell."

Nick smiled, moving aside so Ark could stand Don up, along with Jeff, and escort them both back to their car. Judy grabbed Jeff's gun from off the ground as well as the used shell casing while Nick explained that everything was under control to the shocked shoppers before following Ark to the car and together, they all left for the police station.

By the time Carson Reynolds had arrived, it was clear that he was too late. He alone walked into the store, wearing a cap and sunglasses, but the scene before him made it obvious that both his kids and the three officers were gone. With a scowl, he returned to his vehicle and returned to his home along with his team of Jaguarondi. Ark, Judy, and Nick took the Reynold's brothers back to the Police Station, and together, escorted them inside. Heads turned immediately when Ark entered the building. Many murmuring voices could be heard.

"Is that Ark?" "Oh my god, he's in uniform." "When did he reinstate?"

Both the brothers were passed to Officer McHorn, who was ordered by Judy to take them straight to an interrogation room.

"Ark, great to see you back in uniform!" Benjamin exclaimed from the front desk, "But what's going on?"

"Can't say, Clawhauser. I'll tell you when I know more."

With nothing else said, the three Officers walked back to the interrogation rooms together, and together they walked into the room which had a viewing window into two separate rooms set adjacent to one another.

"Alright, what's our play?" Nick asked, looking at the two brothers handcuffed to separate tables.

"Right now, we need any information we can get. Locations, recourses, anything," Ark replied.

"I'll talk to them first. I'll start with Jeff, the older one. While I'm in there, try and think of other tactics we can use. I'm gonna go play neutral cop," Nick said, and without waiting for a reply entered the room.

Ark and Judy carried on their own conversation while Nick began the interrogation.

"What's their relationship?" Judy asked.

"Near as I can figure, they're pretty close brothers."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, think about it. Two brothers, maybe ten months apart. Grow up without a mother and a drugged up dad, having to do things two kids should never have to do. I'd think they'd grow up to be pretty close, always looking out for each other," Ark explained.

"True. It also seems like Jeff is the stronger of the two. He put up much more of a struggle, and he showed up without any Jaguarondi. He rushed to the Depot to save his brother," Judy pointed out.

Ark considered this for a few moments before his eyes widened with realization, "I'll be back," he said, before quickly leaving the room.

He walked straight to the front desk, pulling Clawhauser's attention off of his lunch.

"Ben, I need headshots of the two biggest, meanest mammals we've got in the Zootopia City Prison."

Nick exited the interrogation rooms not long after Ark vanished out into the station. He had managed to get nothing out of the two brothers; they hadn't said a word.

"They're silent as an owl's wings," Nick said as he walked in.

"Any body language?" Judy asked.

"Well, they're sensitive about each other. They would tense up every time I mentioned the other," he replied.

"Ark and I figured that."

"Where'd he go?" Nick asked.

"I don't know. He just took off a few minutes ago. Don't know when he'll be-" Judy was interrupted by Ark busting into the room, holding two files.

"I'm gonna play of their relationship. Judy, you'll go in after me as the good cop. You can guess which one I'm going to play," Ark commanded, smirking as he quickly but menacingly walked into the interrogation room, placing one of the file down on the table.

"Well, I must admit you're more intimidating than foxy," Jeff said, smirking confidently.

"So you can speak," Ark replied, "Why don't we talk about your brother."

"Leave him out of this, Fanger," he interjected angrily.

"Oh, did I hit a nerve? With that temper, you and him won't last long in prison," Ark replied, opening the file he had placed down to reveal two headshots, one of a mean looking lion and one of a meaner looking rhino, "Take your pick."

"For what?" Jeff questioned.

"Your cell mate. The lion, Clint Maul, is under charges of sexual assault, nearly fatal, on eight accounts. He's serving five life sentences, and boy does that guy need some self-control. You should've seen his last cell mate," Ark explained, then moved over to the rhino, "This is Robert Vifaru, under charges of robbery, assault, cub molestation, attempted assassination of the previous chief of police, and shoplifting. Let's just say he'd have to be immortal to get out of prison. Think about which one you'd rather spend the next five to ten years with, if you make it that long with either of them."

With that said, Ark left the room, allowing Jeff to look over the pictures in horror. Ark went straight next door to follow the same basic routine with Don. Both Nick and Judy were staring at Ark in both amazement and terror, wondering just what clicked in his mind to realize what he would need to do.

"I guess I'm up," Judy said, straightening her uniform before walking in to the first room. Jeff almost didn't notice her, "How long do you think you'll last with either of them?"

"I'll be fine," he replied, though it was clear he didn't believe his own words.

"And what about your brother?" Judy asked, making Jeff's eyes lower. He offered no reply. "Why are you doing this?" No reply. Judy stood in thought for a few moments, staring at him, but suddenly noticed a scar on his forehead, "How'd you get that scar?"

Jeff quickly raised his head so Judy could no longer see it, "I…It's nothing. I got into a fight," he lied.

"Looks like whoever you were fighting had claws, and wasn't afraid to use them," she replied, "You know, if you tell us where your father and Angelica are, I can convince the court to be merciful. You'll get different cell mates, maybe shorter sentences."

Jeff chuckled, "You have no idea who you're dealing with. Don't worry, you'll learn. My father isn't to be messed with. I did it once."

Judy fell silent, then came to a sudden realization, "He's the one who gave you that scar."

"He taught me a life lesson, cotton tail."

"How much can you learn from abuse?" Judy asked passionately, "A punch to the stomach, a claw to the head, what can that teach you? It's not worth it. And how long until that passes over to Donny? How long will it take for him to start feeling the abuse? Save yourself the trouble, tell us where Carson is," Judy pleaded.

With every word Judy spoke, Jeff's expression grew softer and softer. His demeanor continuously dropped, and no matter how much he hated it, he knew she was right.

"I want to talk to Donny," he said, finally.

"Give me the location, and I can arrange that-"

"You'll get nothing until I talk to my brother," he interrupted sternly.

With a sigh, Judy replied, "I'll see what I can do."

 **And here we are again! Told you updates would be faster! Should be every few days, unless I manage to get a job. But what better job could there be than writing? Gaming. It would have to be gaming. Any who, please leave a review!**


	15. Return of the Drug Cartel

**I'm back! My conspiracy theorist is going to be reading this one very closely. I've got one major, yet subtle detail I'm going to be putting in for anyone who wants to try and look for it. Let's test those close reading skills!**

Chapter 15

"I'll see what I can do."

With those words, Judy left the room, heading straight for the adjacent interrogation room. Don Reynolds had his head buried in his arms, the photos of his would-be cell mates laid out in front of him. He immediately lifted his head up when the door closed.

"How many people are gonna come in here, huh? I'm not talking, I don't care what you do!" He exclaimed, clearly aggravated.

"Then don't. I was just talking to your brother-"

"Jeff?" Don said, interrupting Judy, "How is he?"

"He's scared. Scared for himself, and for you," She replied, sitting down at the table across from him, "He wants to talk to you."

"Well let him," he said loudly.

"All in good time, Donny. Right now I need to talk with you," she stated calmly.

"You won't get nothing outa me," her replied.

"Maybe not. You know, I was surprised to find you working at the Depot. Your brother doesn't have a job," she inquired.

"Yeah, well, how else am I gonna make any cash?"

"You should mug people like the rest of the people in your gang," Judy stated, narrowing her eyes at him. His eyes lowered in shame, "Ah. Not the mugging type? You could try bank robbery. You have no shortage of guns, and killing should be no issue-"

"No. I hate those things."

"I see. You know, your boss said the nicest things about you. Says you're an outstanding worker, a great kid. I wonder how he'll take it when we tell him you won't be able to come back because you're in prison," she said, and he raised his eyes to look at her, seeming broken by the very thought, "You know, as it stands you have no criminal record. You've broken no laws, but are suspect of helping Carson Reynolds steal Desert Depot merchandise in conjunction with being an allied to a criminal organization. But, perhaps if you prove to us you aren't part of that gang, those charges can be dropped and you'll have to serve a few hundred hours of community service instead of a few years in a cell with one of these two," she added, motioning to the pictures on the table, "Might even be able to shorten your brothers sentence."

Those words brought him to attention.

"How much can you do for him?" he asked.

"His standing sentence is fifteen years for what he's done, in a cell with one of those two. But if you and him help us here at the ZPD, we just might be able to take a couple years off of his sentence and improve his cell mate. I'll give you a few minutes to think about it," Judy replied, before standing and returning to the observation room.

Ark and Nick were both waiting for her, wondering what exactly she was planning.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to let them see each other?" Nick asked.

"Not really, but they're ready to talk. I think it's the least we can do to edge them on," she replied.

"Or give them a chance to strengthen each other's wills. Maybe they'll only find comfort in talking to each other, and we'll be farther from getting what we need," Ark argued.

"And maybe they won't," Judy countered, "I know there's a good chance they'll comfort each other, but there's also a good chance they'll agree to tell us what we need to know. I'm willing to take that chance if it means getting any closer to bring Reynolds down and bring Officer Coldmen home."

The two predators remained silent. After a few moment, Ark let out a heavy sigh and motioned with his hand for Judy to proceed. She quickly thanked him before making her way back into Jeff's room, preparing to bring him into Don's. Back at the Reynolds Compound, Carson was less than happy. Tables were overturned, antiques broken, and he was realizing how close to defeat he was. Desperate for victory, he became even more unstable. Shoving past the Jaguarondi who were trying to calm him, he made his way back into the large concrete room where Angelica sat, still tied up and barely conscious. To rouse her, he stormed up to her and smacked her hard across the face, causing her to cry out in pain before her face was grabbed and she was forced to look him in the eyes.

"They took my boys. They took my boys!" he yelled, smacking her again, "What, do you think they'll talk? My sons will hold strong. They're trained for this," he added, a crazed and desperate smile on his face.

From outside the room, two of Reynolds' henchmen were talking about just that.

"They are trained for interrogation, aren't they?" one asked.

"There training wasn't complete. They aren't ready for the real thing," another replied. Both of them looked into the room at their desperate boss.

"I don't wanna be the one to tell him that."

The smile faded from Reynolds' face when Angelica began to chuckle.

"Face it, Reynolds," she said, weakly, "This is one game you aren't going to win."

Angrily, Carson stormed up to her and kicked her in the chest, causing the chair to fall backwards. She grunted in pain when her back impacted the ground. The angered cheetah then walked over and bent down just so he could get in her face.

"When they come for you, you are going to watch them suffer as they die," he whispered.

"You can't kill them…those officers are better than you…" Coldmen forced a reply.

"My deer little Angel, I'm not going to kill them. You're going to watch them kill each other."

Almost as soon as Jeff caught sight of his brother, he rushed to his side. There reunion was heartfelt, at least to Officer Hopps, as she watched Jeff Reynolds care for and look over his restrained younger brother.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, but Jeff…those people they're gonna put us with," Don replied

"I know, Don."

"No, she told me that if we told them what they want to know, you won't have to be in prison as long, and you won't have to be with one of those people. And I won't have to be in prison at all," the younger cat interrupted, "But I'm worried."

"Is that true?" Jeff asked, looking hopefully at Judy.

"He'll only have to serve a few hundred hours of community service," she replied.

Jeff thought for a moment, before looking his brother in the eyes, "Donny, it isn't worth it."

"But what about Dad?"

"Forget about him. He stopped being our dad a long time ago," the elder replied.

A few moments of silence passed before the two brothers looked directly at Judy, both ready to talk. As soon as this was confirmed, and not a moment later, Nick and Ark entered the room, carrying three chairs. One was set up for Jeff, and the other two for the remaining officers who had no chair. When everyone was settled, Jeff began.

"Our Dad has most of his entire compound set up in a warehouse in the slums of Sahara Square. He has a lot of drug synthesis stations, most of it for market trade. That's where he gets most of his money. The drug market is full of people who are desperate for their next high, and right now, he owns the drug market, and he's hell bent on keeping it that way. To ensure his stations are protected, he has a lot of guns. Everything semi or full auto," Jeff explained.

"What kinds?" Ark asked, taking out a note pad and beginning to write.

"Most of the people inside have Uzis and CZ Scorpions. The bouncers outside are all packing 12 Gauges and AR-15's. Our dad usually keeps a Kel Tec Sub 2000 under his desk, and a 1911 in his pants. But frankly, with the amount of people he has with guns in hand, I don't think the type matters. He has a lot of guns, and just as many cats to shoot them," he replied.

"Wait a minute, you said he own the drug market?" Nick interjected, having come to a sudden realization.

"Yeah, if someone wants a supply, they go to him," Don replied.

"Ark, didn't you say that you first suspected Reynolds was back because of the Night Howler case?" Nick asked.

Both Judy and Ark immediately knew what Nick was getting at. If someone needed a supply of a particular drug, they went to Reynolds. And who did Nick and Judy know who needed a very particular drug?

"Nick, get the address to the compound. I'm gonna go call the prison and let them know we're coming," Ark said, before rushing out of the room.

Nick did as he was told while Judy thanked them for their cooperation. When they had done what they needed to do, both Officers prepared to leave.

"Officer Hopps!" Don called out as she was in the doorway, causing her to stop and turn around, "Bring Angel home safely."

With a warm smile and a nod, Judy left the room. She quickly grabbed the nearby Officer Fangmeyer and requested that he take the Reynolds Brothers to a temporary holding cell before jogging off and catching up to Nick and Ark, who were on their way out to their police cruiser. Within minutes, the three officers were on their way to the Zootopia City Prison, where a particular sheep was already being prepared to receive her first visitors.

 **Ho. Ly. Shi. Znit. I don't know why, but I get so much writer's block when the chapter isn't either action-packed or filled with emotion. No clue why, but it just doesn't flow as easily. Shorter chapter, I know. But I also realized something I did while writing this chapter. Something about Carson Reynolds which I hadn't realized before. He uses the game analogy a lot, and talks about how he hates to lose. His species is also a cheetah. He hates losing at games, and he's a cheetah. What does he do to win at games? He cheats. Why? BECAUSE HE'S A CHEETAH! I swear, that wasn't intentional at all. I just noticed that while typing this chapter up. My conspiracy theorist didn't even notice that, so I feel proud! But he has plenty to notice in this chapter. More keys to the past, and to the future. Leave me a review!**


	16. Secrets Discovered

**The first review I got on the last chapter was a compliment, and I'd like to say thank you. I hope to continue pleasing my readers. My conspiracy theorist seems to be an AK fan. He pointed out that with Reynold's resources, he should have access to more powerful guns, such as AK-47's and so on. I would like to state that the AK line of firearms is not inherently better or worse than, say, the AR line. People have their preferences, and I personally prefer the AR line. Not to say the AK isn't a very versatile gun, but I have a different preference. The same way I prefer Glock 9MM over a 1911 .45 ACP. Granted, I have limited experience with AK's, so I may change my preference in the future, but for now any comparisons I can make place the AR lineup higher in my favorite's list. That's why I gave the Reynolds gang AR-15's. As for the other guns, such as the Uzi's, I see those in a lot of cop shows whenever a drug operation is busted. Seems to be the usual weapon they have hidden under the counter. And to what you were able to deduce, I'm a little thrown back. Either I didn't present the clues very well or they were too subtle, but you missed quite a few this time. Alright, with that said, shall we continue?**

Chapter 16

By the time the three officers arrived at the city prison, two guards had already escorted former Mayor Bellwether to a visitation room. She sat in the metal chair, impatiently waiting for her surprise visitors to arrive. In front of her, a bullet-proof glass plate separated her from the visitor's side. She sat there for only a few minutes before the three officers walked in, Ark sitting in the chair and the smaller two officers standing on either side of him. Bellwether was greatly surprised by the visitation of not one but three officers, let alone the two officers who put her in prison plus the officer who resigned in the earliest days of her being Assistant Mayor.

"Judy," she said, in a half cheer, half distain voice, "I didn't expect to see you-"

"Let's skip the pleasantries, Bellwether," Ark interrupted, "We need information regarding Carson Reynolds."

"The name doesn't ring a bell," she replied, a smug grin on her face, "Can't help ya."

"Don't play dumb, Bellwether. The crime boss you bought the Midnicampum Holicithias from, the guy you hired to produce the Night Howler serum," Judy said angrily, pointing a finger at the smirking sheep for emphasis.

Bellwether leaned forward and placed her chin in her hands, her smile never fading.

"Oh, that Carson Reynolds!" She said sarcastically, "Swell guy, terrible taste in entertainment, but I think you already figured that part out."

"Chief Bogo is in the hospital, Officer Coldmen has been taken hostage, and a wolf named Winston Philips was murdered," Nick blurted, sneering at the relaxed sheep.

"The less predators, the better."

"Bellwether, more than just predators are going to be hurt!" Nick exclaimed, "Reynolds wants complete control, and he'll do whatever it takes to get it. Not a single animal in this city is safe until we bring him down."

Bellwether tried to hold her chill demeanor, but upon hearing Nick's words, it faltered slightly before returning to what it was before.

Ark leaned close to the glass and whispered, "We have his location, we know what kind of weapons he has, but we need to make sure we go in prepared for whatever we run in to."

Just then, one of the prison staff walked up to the three officers and said, "Your time is up, we need to transfer Ms. Bellwether back to her cell." As he finished, a prison guard appeared on the other side of the window behind her. Before she was taken away, she also leaned closer to the glass.

"However many officers you bring, make sure you bring just as many body bags," she said maliciously, before disappearing through the door which led to the prison hold.

All three officers stayed where they were, paralyzed by the words of the former Mayor of Zootopia. They were broken from their trance when the radios mounted on the shoulders of Nick and Judy both began going off.

"Officer Hopps, please respond," a female voice said.

Judy jumped right on to her radio, "This is Officer Hopps responding."

"Officer Hopps, please return to the ZPD immediately," the voice replied.

"I'm on my way."

With that said, Judy led to two predators out of the prison and out to their car. She jumped into the driver's seat, with Nick already in the passenger's side, leaving the largest of them all to unhappily squeeze into the back seat. When all were buckled in, Judy started up the car and made her way out of the prison parking lot and onto the road. The drive back to the police department was short; both the prison and the station were located in capitol city at the center of Zootopia, surrounded by the other 11 districts. A commotion was visible inside when the three pulled into the ZPD parking lot; Officer McHorn was interviewing a smaller mammal, what looked like a Mongoose, near the hallway which led to the monitor room. The rest of the officers in the building were inspecting all the security cameras. Ark led his two companions inside, and they made way straight for McHorn, who was acting chief while Bogo was in the hospital.

"McHorn, what's going on?" Ark asked as they came within earshot of the rhino.

He had no time to reply before Officer Francine emerged from the monitor room and answered, "Tony, here," she said, motioning to the Mongoose, "was here doing maintenance on the camera's and monitor systems when he found a bug attached to the wireless receiver."

"A bug?" Nick asked, unclear on the meaning.

"Somebody installed a signal re-router in the wireless receiver of your security monitors. I don't know how long it's been here, but any video received to that machine was also sent somewhere else, but the signal cut of as soon as it was unplugged," the mongoose identified as Tony replied.

"Wait a minute," Judy interjected, "You mean to tell me that every camera connected to that receiver was also sending our video footage to someone else?"

"That's about the gist of it."

"And I'd bet we don't even need to ask who's been receiving," Nick added.

"We're running the device's serial number now," Francine said, "Should be in in a few minutes."

"Try right now," sounded Officer Fangmeyer as he emerged from his workstation with a file in hand, "the device was custom build for one Jeffery Conner, some kind of cat species. I'm not trying to pronounce it."

"Jaguarondi, right?" Ark asked with frustration in his voice, taking the file from the wolf.

"That would be it," he replied.

Ark, Nick, and Judy all felt the same frustration, remembering the henchmen they had taken for private interrogation, and knowing where all the video had gone, and finally discovering the missing pieces they needed. Before any of the three could say anything, Ark pulled the other two aside, out of earshot of the other officers.

"So, everything the security cameras caught up until this point has been going straight to Reynolds. That's how he knew what car we were all in; the camera's inside told him," Ark confirmed.

"And every plan we've made. He has footage from the offices, the cars, even this atrium," Nick added, glancing around the room they were in.

Hearing his words, Judy's eyes went wide, "And the interrogation rooms."

 **Quite possibly my shortest chapter yet, but I needed to post something. I've had so much trouble writing this chapter, and I don't know why. I hope the chapter is at least somewhat good. Just to throw this out, I did start playing Clash of Clans the other day, and recently created my own clan. It's a free join, anyone can. Though I will kick out any assholes, so be warned. The clan name is "Lands of Trium," and I am its single knight. I'm sure the lands could use more protectors, so if you don't have one, please join. Also, leave a review please!**


	17. Fur Standing On End

**I got a kitty! I got a little kitten, and he is the most precious two-faced bundle of fur ever. He has a genetic deformity which makes him a bob-tail, so his tail is really small, but he is so awesome. The cutest little cuddle bug when he's tired, and the most playful kitty when he's awake. I promise that from now on I'll be back on track with chapters. Read, and review!**

Chapter 17

"And the interrogation rooms," Judy said, her ears dropping and her eyes widening.

Ark quickly moved passed his two counterparts, making way for the bull pit, "Call everyone in. If he knows we're coming, we have to move fast or he'll vanish like he did before."

With that said, Ark disappeared into the targeted room. Every officer in Nick and Judy's available contact was called in; the entire Precinct, every officer assigned to City Central was packed into the same room. Ark, Nick, and Judy all stood at the front of the room, the taller predator standing in the middle with his friends on either side of him. When each officer had either found a seat or found a place to stand, the white tiger called for them to all quiet down.

"Alright, I have a lot to cover and not a lot of time. I know it's a little late in the day for assignments, and I'm in no place to give them. Legally, I'm not even an officer, but I served this city alongside many of you. Graduated from the academy with a few of you in my class. I hope that you haven't lost your faith in me, and for the rest of you, I hope to prove myself to you in the next few hours," Ark began, the sincerity of his speech grabbing the full attention of anyone who wasn't already paying, "And there is only one assignment to give, and it's to all of you. It's going to be dangerous, but if we are not successful, a crime lord by the name of Carson Reynolds is going to take control of the underbelly of Zootopia, and I have reason to believe he won't stop there."

"Wait a minute, how did this information come about?" Officer McHorn blurted, "This is quite the sudden situation, don't you think?"

"Trust us, it's not as sudden as you may think," Judy replied quickly, silencing any murmurs following McHorn's comment.

"Some of you remember, some of you weren't here. But many years ago, there was a case known as the Hallucinogen Bust. Officer Billy Coldmen, our current missing officer's father, was assigned on a case to cut off the flow of a drug known as Hallucinogen, but when a crime boss by the name of Carson Reynolds discovered that his supply was being cut off, he had the officer responsible killed. Two other officers were involved in the case; myself and Chief Bogo. We were supposed to find Reynolds, shut him down, and protect both the city and our fellow officer. We failed at both. Coldmen was killed, and Reynolds disappeared. Now he has returned and is once again threatening countless lives. He has taken one of our officers' hostage, put our chief in the hospital, and killed a wolf by the name of Winston Philips," Ark explained, informing all of the newer officers and reminding the older ones.

"Thanks to a few very cooperative sources, we have his location, and we know just what resources he has. We're dealing with a lot of firepower which some of the newer recruits, such as myself and Officer Wilde, have no training with or against," Judy added. She went on talking, explaining what exactly they would face, but all eyes in the room drifted towards the door.

"You're gonna need a lot more than good cops to beat what you're describing, Hopps," said a voice, deep and powerful, which all in the room knew by heart.

Any eyes which weren't already there quickly darted to the entrance of the room, where a large buffalo draped in a ZPD uniform leaned in the doorway.

"Bogo," Ark said, surprised by his arrival, and with a warm smile on his face, rushed over to greet his friend with a hug, surprising every officer in the room.

Bogo was quick to break the hug, saying, "No time for pleasantries. Like you said, we've gotta move. If what Officer Hopps said is true, we're gonna need more than this to get through."

"What else do we have? It would be wonderful if you knew a mercenary or two to give a call," Ark replied.

"I could call in the SWAT Team," he suggested.

"We have a SWAT Team?"

"Yeah. Was implemented after you resigned. City Council thought it would be better if we had a Special Ops team for when things got too intense for the ZPD alone. They have all the firearms now, so we can arm what officer's we have that are trained to use them, and give some protection to those who aren't. Looks like you need to replace your vest anyways," Bogo said, motioning to the used, battered vest which Ark was currently wearing, "I'll give them a call. They'll be here within the hour. To the rest of you, prepare yourselves. This bust has been many years in the works, and I am not prepared to let Reynolds slip away again."

Everything happened true to Bogo's word. He and Ark disappeared into the Chief's office to talk about everything Ark knew, and less than 60 minutes later, three huge black vans arrived in front of the station, each with the letters S.W.A.T. painted in white on the side. Within minutes, mammals all in the same uniform had rolled in a few carts of firearms and ammo. Only enough to arm the experienced officers, but more than any of the untrained ones had ever seen in one place. Each officer was fitted with a bullet proof vest. The older officers were all given AR-15's chambered in 223 and Colt 1911's chambered in .45 ACP. Some were given shotguns, but there were only a few. The remaining officers were given steal clubs and riot shields made of a dense, bullet proof plastic. Nick and Judy were only given two small bullet proof vests, as there were no guns, clubs, or shields in their size. When everyone was ready, they all loaded up and prepared to head off to the address given to them by the Reynolds boys.

Meanwhile at the compound, Angelica had been moved. She was in a new room, but had a burlap sack once again placed on her head. All around her, she could hear metal pieces sliding together. Whatever was happening, she knew it couldn't be good. Deep inside, she was truly terrified.

 **Shortest chapter I've ever written in my life, but I have good reason. Not long ago, I was contacted by an unknown person on Kik who tried to sell me pornographic pictures of their sister that they claimed to have taken without her knowing. I chewed them out as much as I could, but they wouldn't listen to any reason I could offer to prove that what they were doing was wrong. I won't be able to rest until I've done everything within my power to put their actions to an end. They are disrespecting themselves, their family, and women around the world. If any of you are in contact with the hacker organization known as Anonymous, I would be very grateful. Once again, I'm sorry for the long gaps between updates and I will be back on track now. Expect a new chapter in a few days, three max.**


	18. Raiding the Compound

**As promised, I'm back, and with an important announcement. Active at the end of this story, I am leaving . I get very few bad reviews here, and even less constructive criticism. It seems there isn't much more I can learn here, so to further my writing ability, I am moving forward. I'm going to begin writing my own stories, and publishing them so I can pursue my dream career as an author. I hope that all my readers will watch for the name "Sky Rider" when browsing through book stores, or online.**

Chapter 18

All sounds fell silent around Angelica Coldmen. Everything that had her terrified, everything which stood her fur on end, every loud noise ceased to exist. All that was heard was the heavy breathing of many, many people. The sensation of four claws pressed against her throat became more and more present, making her sit straight, petrified. Finally, the silence was broken by a voice whispering in her ear through the burlap sack.

"Are you ready to die, Angel?"

 _45 minutes earlier…_

It was easy to see how nervous many of the newer officers were. They all sat in the SWAT vans, tense as bridge suspension cables. Nick and Judy huddled themselves close together, making sure they had some form of physical contact at all times. Ark sat across from them, and like Bogo, wasn't nearly as nervous. With a gentle paw on each of their knees, he began quietly speaking.

"Hey, you two will be fine. Just stay behind the front line until we make enough headway, then you'll be able to attack without them ever seeing you. The one direction these guys won't be looking is down," he said.

The two small officers nodded, and only moments later did a red light on the top of the van flick on. A large lion quickly stood up and began shouting orders.

"Alright everyone, that's the red light. Helmets on, arm your weapons! We're go in five," he commanded.

Without a moments pass, everyone who had a helmet put it on, including Ark, and flipped their visors down. Very quickly, the van was filled with sounds of magazines being loaded into various rifles and rounds being chambered. All officers untrained with firearms got good grips on the black clubs they had been given, and those that had them got even better grips on their riot shields. As the lion had said, five minutes passed and the car came to a very quick halt. One second later the red light turned green and the lion began shouting again.

"Shield out, move, move, move!" he ordered and suddenly, the van was filled with evening sunlight and the larger officers with riot shield flooded out, moving forward towards the large compound one hundred meters ahead and creating a wall, where the remaining SWAT and ZPD officers gathered behind.

Nick and Judy never left each other's sight, neither one of them feeling entirely safe without the other. When every mammal was in place, there were three separate groups. Three sections of about 16 each, five riot shields a piece. As soon as the placement was confirmed, the groups began to advance towards the compound, but not together. The groups split off in three directions, flanking left, right, and forward to the front of the compound. It was strange, though. Ark, Bogo, and the lions who seemed to be commanding the SWAT were all on high alert because absolutely nothing was happening. No bullets, no attacks, no noises. All that lay before them were trees scattered around the dirt driveway leading up to what could easily be mistaken for a garage door as the front entrance to the large warehouse building.

The two groups who flanked left and right held their positions just ten or so yards away from the entrance, taking cover behind the various underbrush while the center group god within seven yards of the sliding door before stopping. Ark, who was leading the center group, had ordered them to halt. Something wasn't right; he could feel it. As if on cue to their stopping, all of them caught movement. From hidden places all over the front of the compound, feline after feline emerged, each armed with some kind of gun. The shooting began immediately, forcing everyone in Ark's division to take cover behind the riot shield. When they managed to root themselves in place and begin firing back, the other two divisions advanced, opening fire on the many armed Jaguarondi.

Inside the compound, Angelica still sat tied to the chair with a burlap sack placed over her head. She could very clearly hear gunshots and quite a lot of commotion outside, and within the room she was held captive, small amounts of shuffling. She could hear Reynolds ordering a few of his henchmen around, but his words were blurred by both her fear and the roar of the nearby firefight. With every gunshot she hear, every time a body fell to the ground, another group of hairs on her body stood on end. She sat straight up in her seat when she felt the presence of two mammals on either side of her and one standing behind. The two on either side both chambered bullets in unknown guns. The very last sensation she felt was a hand being placed on the back of the chair she was tied to, before the only sense being stimulated was her sense of hearing.

Outside, things were going greatly in the favor of the ZPD and SWAT. Clearly, Reynolds' men were not prepared for their adversaries to be packing such artillery and attacking with such strategy, and they were paying dearly for their lack of preparation. Though some of the officers and SWAT members were down, none were fatally shot. Even Nick and Judy were growing more confident, moving forward and attacking where they saw opportunities. Ark and Bogo were standing side by side, protected by Officer Del Gatto's shield and shooting with their rifles.

"This is quite the familiar feeling, isn't it Fanger?" Bogo shouted over the gunfire.

"Fighting a firefight against Reynolds' men trying to get Coldmen to safety, or the lovely evening?" Ark joked, continuing to fire, successfully taking down another Jaguarondi.

Seeing an opening where Ark's target had gone down, Judy rushed forward towards another, still standing enemy. With a raised club and eyes full of determination, Judy leaped forward aiming to knock out another feline foe, but this attack would be unsuccessful. As she flew through the air, a different Jaguarondi spotted her, and with amazing speed and precision, raised his sidearm and fired. The bullet flew through the air and impacted her in the chest, sending her flying backwards with a half-cry, half-grunt straight to the dirt ground and sliding to a stop in a bush.

"Carrots!" Nick said, desperation in his voice as he sprinted across the small battlefield straight to where Judy had stopped.

He was relieved to find that her bullet-proof vest had stopped the bullet, but her small size made the impact enough to break some ribs and leave her unconscious.

"Wilde, get her out of here!" Ark commanded, and without hesitation Nick picked her up and ran from the line of fire, taking shelter within the SWAT vans which he knew were impervious to any bullet their enemies were shooting.

Even in her unconscious state, she had a pained expression on her face. There was currently nothing Nick could do to make her pain lesson, so hid did the only thing he could think to do: he pulled her close and held her firmly, trying to comfort her even if she was out cold.

"Advance! Advance!" the Lion commanded, and the remaining riot shields began pushing forward.

The few remaining Jaguarondi were soon pinned against the front sliding door, desperately firing back at the ZPD and SWAT. Soon enough, the door began to lift from the ground and slide open, revealing a few more Jaguarondi who rushed to join in the fight. They were soon mowed down, but as the door came to be fully open, it revealed a scene which made current matters much more difficult. Angelica Coldmen, sitting in the center of the room, tied to a chair with her face covered by a burlap sack. The gunfire around her was causing her to scream, but she was silenced when a cheetah taking cover behind her placed his claws to her throat.

"Hold your fire!" Bogo and Ark said in desperate unison.

All gunfire stopped. All sounds fell silent around Angelica Coldmen. Everything that had her terrified, everything which stood her fur on end, every loud noise ceased to exist. All that was heard was the heavy breathing of many, many people. The sensation of four claws pressed against her throat became more and more present, making her sit straight, petrified. Finally, the silence was broken by a voice whispering in her ear through the burlap sack.

"Are you ready to die, Angel?" Carson whispered, receiving only her whimpering in fear as a response.

"Reynolds! You're men are down, and you are outnumbered. Give it up!" Ark shouted.

"Surrender, Reynolds. You've lost," Bogo added.

Those words only enraged the cheetah. He very quickly ripped the sack from Angelica's head with his free hand.

"Don't tell me that!" he screamed furiously, allowing his claws to dig slightly into the flesh of her neck. "You took out my men. Took my sons from me. Took away my city. But I will not be defeated!"

Feeling the pain of her skin breaking, her eyes began to water. The combination of pain and fear for her life were finally enough to break her, and as the tears began to flow, she stared out to Bogo with pleading eyes. Seeing this, both Ark and Bogo began to get desperate, rushing forward ahead of their line of shields, but stopping dead in their tracks when Reynolds tightened his grip.

"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you. I've still got the upper hand here, so don't test me!"

Angelica could feel each claw dig deeper every time he tightened his grip. This situation was unbelievably familiar to the poor girl. Reynolds holding her down, using her as his ace-in-the-hole to get what he wants from others.

"Now," he continued, "You all be good little cops and stay right where you are. We wouldn't want an accident to happen, now would we?"

Reynolds emphasized his point but pressing his claws tighter against her throat. Every officer there was frozen stiff, not wanting to test the limits of what he was really willing to do. Angelica had begun to hold her breath in both fear and anticipation of what action those around her would take next. She couldn't see Reynolds; she could only feel his presence behind her, and his claws in her throat. That is, until his free hand raised, and out of the corner of her right eye, she saw his hand lift up holding what appeared to be some kind of dart gun, powered by compressed air. It was a weapon she was unfamiliar with, as were all of the officers standing without movement. Without warning, Reynolds very quickly aimed into the group of officers, very obviously at Bogo, and fired. From the muzzle of the gun, a purple blur fired out, flying straight at the chief of police, but with speed nobody knew he possessed, Ark charged sideway and dove, knocking the Chief from the line of fire. The projectile fired from the gun impacted Ark in the cheek, and before the eyes of everyone there, he fell limp to the ground.

"No!" Bogo screamed, drawing his Makarov and with precision accuracy, shooting at Reynolds.

The bullet flew through the air, and before the cheetah could even register what happened, pierced into his right arm. He reeled back in pain, subsequently releasing Angelica and knocking the chair over. Nobody fired for fear of hitting the captive officer, but Reynolds didn't hesitate to retreat back into the separate rooms of the compound, out of sight.

"McHorn, bring him to me!" Bogo shouted, and without hesitation, the Rhino ran off with four other officers.

From next to him, Bogo could hear Ark moaning and groaning, signaling that he was alive, which was a great relief to the chief, but a look in Angelica's eyes as she stared at the downed feline; a look which Bogo shared when he too let his eyes fall to his partner. On the ground, Ark was thrashing about, his groans more and more often dipping into growls and quiet roars. It quickly became no mystery what the pellet was which had struck the tiger in the cheek.

"Night Howler," Bogo whispered to himself, and on que of his words, the serum took its full effect.

With eyes full of craven instinct, Ark began scanning his surroundings, letting them rest on the buffalo sitting just a few feet away. Setting his sights on his prey, he crouched down to the ground on all fours and bared his teeth, preparing for the instinctual hunt.

"Chief," Officer Del Gatto whispered, "What do we do?"

"Get an ambulance here now. Make sure they have the Night Howler antidote. I'm going to hold him here," Bogo quietly replied, dropping his gun to the ground and lowering himself to the ground to be level with the savage tiger.

"Chief, what are you doing?" another officer asked desperately.

"Dealing with him the only way you can deal with a savage."

 **Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun! My theorist never came forward and mentioned the night howlers as being a possibility, so this should have surprised them. But what will come of the battle ahead? Will they be able to bring Reynolds in before he escapes and disappears once again? Stay tuned for the next chapter! Oh, one more thing: REVIEW!**


	19. Primitive Battle - Officer Down

**So, who else is wasting every waking moment running around catching Pokémon? I don't know about anyone else, but I am having loads of fun meeting new people who, evidently, live in the same apartment complex. Who knew, right? Something happened to me today as well, and forgive me if I ramble, but I'm gonna tell a story. So, near where I live is a gym, a Pokémon gym that is, and I was gonna go capture it for team Valor. I was crossing the street at an intersection when a hardware truck went by adjacent to my crosswalk, but the back of the truck was open, so in the middle of the intersection, a container full of plastic bottles, washers, nails, and screws fell out and broke open all over the street. I was amazed to see that three players, including myself, all forgot about the gym for a brief few minutes to wonder out into the middle of the intersection, stop traffic, and clean the street. When the truck finally returned, the workers inside were overjoyed to find that a job which would've taken the two of them a good fifteen minutes to complete was already done. It was so amazing to not only see a few kids around my age come together to clean the street and make sure no car tires were punctured with nails and screws, and also to see that even though the traffic was put to a full and complete stop, not a single driver was angry. No one honked a horn, nor did anyone yell at us. It's been a very long time since I've seen such a display of community, patience, respect, and understanding. It was absolutely amazing to be a part of that, and I can only say thank you to a video game for bringing a few kids together to do something nice simply because it was the right thing to do. I hope more things of the sort begin to happen in the future. With all of that said, you may now read on and find out what is to happen to Ark, Bogo, Judy, and Reynolds.**

Chapter 19

Angelica stared in horror at the scene before her, still tied to the chair which Carson Reynolds had knocked over before fleeing. She had watched as Ark Fanger was shot with a Night Howler pellet, and slowly underwent the transformation into a savage, primitive animal, before setting his sights on Chief Bogo. She didn't understand why he dropped his weapons, until another officer asked him what he was doing, and his reply laid it all out for her.

"Dealing with him the only way you can deal with a savage."

There is only one way to take a savage animal down: on equal terms. That's what many of the officers learned in the time of the Night Howler case when the savage outbreak was assumed as biological. No officers had guns at the time, so when a savage predator attacked, officers were told to fight with them in a more primal way, since hand-to-hand combat wouldn't be very effective. Bogo was doing that very thing with Ark, dropping down to be eye level with the savage tiger who had set its sights on the Chief.

Every spectating officer stared with captivation, all of them wanting to move, to help the chief, but none of them knowing what they would, should, or could do. Unknown to any of them, there was a hidden spectator. An injured Jaguarondi, laying shot and bleeding out, smiling at the success of his boss's plan. Not a single officer spotted him, all too captivated by the spectacle at hand. After what seemed like an eternity of Ark not making a move, he charged. On all fours, he was lightning fast, taking two strides forward before leaping at the chief with a roar. Bogo was quick to duck under the first set of claws, taking hold of Ark by the chest and using his momentum to throw him in the same direction, affectively slamming him into a tree. The tiger was quick to rebound, charging at the chief again. This time, Bogo very agilely swerved around Ark, moving behind him and successful locking him in a hold from behind. Though the savage tiger struggled, he couldn't break free. Not without very specific maneuvers, which he didn't have the capacity to use in his current state.

For minutes following minutes, the two mammals thrashed about on the ground, Ark lashing out frantically and roaring, trying to escape the prey which proved too formidable to successfully kill, and Bogo holding on for dear life, unwilling to let his friend escape before he could be given the antidote. Minutes following minutes, seconds following seconds, but no matter what measure of time you use, it wasn't passing fast enough. Police officers stared in hypnotized horror, none of them having planned for this contingency.

In the unmoving, empty S.W.A.T. Van, Nick still cradled the injured Judy who was slowly returning to consciousness. Her barely awake form was clenched in pain, and every roar from outside, her face expressed terror. Nick held her close, his own eyes closed as he tried to comfort her. Inside, he was in turmoil. Half of him was worried sick about Judy. The other half wanted to personally ring the neck of Carson Reynolds for forcing the ZPD into this position. For putting Judy in the position to get hurt.

More time passed of the savage ex-officer Fanger and Chief Bogo wrestling in the dirt, neither of them making any leeway. Finally, a line of ambulances led by a police cruiser sped onto the scene, and from the open window of the police cruiser, the muzzle of an air powered dart rifle poked out, firing what looked to be a tranquilizer dart straight out and into the exposed leg of Officer Fanger. Within moments, the fluid within the dart made its way into the savage tiger's system, and moments later, he began to calm down. He stopped thrashing about within the minutes, and his eyes returned to their normal shade of blue. Within ninety seconds, he was taking in his surroundings, wondering what was going on, and why he was being held down.

"Bogo?" Ark asked quietly as everything fell silent, and paramedics rushed to aid the injured officers.

"Yeah?" Bogo replied, panting hard.

"Why are we in the dirt? More importantly, why are you holding me in the dirt?" Ark asked

Bogo could help but begin to chuckle, which led into a deep laugh as he released Ark and helped the white tiger to his feet.

"Reynolds hit you with a Night Howler Pellet. Be thankful that the antidote has been improved so much in so little time, or you'd be heading to Zootopia General in a cage," Bogo explained, placing a hand on Ark's shoulder.

That's when the gunshot broke the relative silence. Bogo went down.

 **There was a lot of controversy over the events of this chapter, and the time it took me to get it done is the reason for its length. Yes, I did waste more time Pokémon hunting than I'd like to admit, but I also went to the California State Fair and came down with severe Dehydration Sickness which took me out for a few days. Just when I say I'm back on track, life hits me hard. But what can you do? Hope you enjoyed the chapter, short as it was.**


	20. I'm Back!

Hey everyone! I know I've been gone a long time, and I'm not going to make excuses. The truth is, I prioritized my time elsewhere while things in life happened, and I never got back on track here on FanFiction. I'm super sorry! Especially cause this is my last story to be posted on FanFiction, and also especially because I left you all on such a cliffhanger! In the next few days I will post a new chapter. In that time, those of you still with me, I recommend you refresh yourselves on everything that has happened so far.


	21. The Aftermath

**And I'm back! Time to finally continue and FINISH the last story I will ever post to FanFiction. I may, in the future, revamp my KFP fanfic so it is better quality, the same way I did with Vexx. Either way, I'm glad you readers have bared with me. It's time to end this drug cartel. Time to solve this case. To end this story.**

Chapter 20

The scene was joyful. The gunfight between the forces of the ZPD & SWAT and Carson Reynolds' gang had been won by the good, with no casualties and only one injury. Inside the armored SWAT van, Officer Wilde still cradled the small Officer Hopps, who had taken a bullet to the chest. Though stopped by her bullet proof vest, the bullet impacted with enough force on her small frame to break ribs and send her flying. As she began to wake from the unconscious state it left her in, the pain of her injuries hit her with a vengeance. It was all Nick could do just to comfort her.

Outside, a primal battle had been waged and won. Officer Ark Fanger had been hit with a Night Howler pellet, forcing Chief Bogo to face him as an animal. That fierce fight between predator and prey was ended when the cure for the serum was brought to the scene, and with his dearest friend well again, Bogo led a celebration for all the officers, including the now rescued Angelica Coldmen. However, that celebration was cut short.

During the struggle of predator and prey, a wounded and dying Jaguarondi was adamant on fighting until death. With the last of his strength, he raised his firearm from his position on the ground and aimed at Bogo. The bullet flew, breaking the joyful cries with the sound of a gunshot, and within a fraction of a second, Chief Bogo hit the ground and the Jaguarondi breathed his last breath. If only Bogo was in a better position. Though he was wearing body armor, the armored plates in his vest only covered his front and back. His sides were protected only by Kevlar, which was easily breached by the fast moving bullet fired from the pistol of the now dead henchmen.

The bullet passed through the side of Bogo's armor and into his chest, taking him very quickly to the ground. Ark froze; he could barely process what had just happened in front of him. With his closest friend on the ground, the world around him slowed. Ark watched as Bogo lay motionless, save for convulsing only to cough up blood, and after nearly half a minute, he dropped down to cradle his downed comrade.

"Medic! We need a medic here!" Ark screamed to the ambulances still on sight.

Very quickly, two panthers rushed out with a stretcher. Ark moved aside and let them move Bogo, but followed them to the ambulance.

"Looks like a punctured lung," one of them said as they loaded into the ambulance.

"The bullet could've fragmented coming through the armor. We need to get him into surgery, fast," the other added as the doors to the ambulance closed, leaving Ark to stand and watch them pull away, stunned by the events that took minutes to happen.

Little did anyone know, Officer Nick Wilde was listening to it all as well. Every word the panthers spoke about the downed chief. First Judy, then Bogo. None could've comprehended the anger he felt toward the one responsible; towards Reynolds. He wanted nothing more than to make that cat suffer, but at the same time, he felt conflicted. Would Judy want that? Even after what he has done, would Judy want Reynolds to suffer and be put to death? No. She wouldn't. Without waiting any longer, Nick lifted his injured friend into his arms and carried her out to another waiting ambulance, he held her hand as she was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. He was ready to get in with her, but was stopped upon hearing Officer McHorn return from chasing after Reynolds.

"Where's Chief Bogo?" he said, looking around for the Chief.

"Hopefully very close to Zootopia General by now," Ark replied, "Where the hell is Reynolds?"

"We lost him, Ark. He escaped into the subway," McHorn answered.

Nick froze. Reynolds escaped? The job wasn't over. Ark was less than pleased by this outcome.

"Mobilize all units! I want every subway station under surveillance. Every tunnel leading out of the city shut down! Find Reynolds, now!" Ark ordered with fury in his voice.

None hesitated to follow his orders. Nick left Judy to the care of the medics in the ambulance and rushed to Ark's side, wanting to be ready to help him.

"Ark, what's our play? Where would he go?" asked Nick.

"I don't know," Ark replied as Officer Coldmen was loaded onto a stretcher.

Ark watched as her abused and malnourished body was loaded into the last ambulance and sped off to the hospital. Seeing her taken off was the final thing to send him into overdrive.

"But we're gonna find out. Come on!" He ordered, leading Nick to a Police cruiser and driving them back to the ZPD.

The drive was fast, quiet, and heated. Ark was radiating anger. Nick could see a fire in his eyes which meant only bad intentions, but he was in no position to calm the tiger down. Ark was quick to storm into the building as soon as they arrived, not even pausing as he rushed back to the temporary holding cells, where the two sons of Carson Reynolds were still held, patiently waiting for news of their father's arrest. As soon as they saw the fuming White Tiger enter the holding area, both brothers stood to attention. The eldest was the first to speak.

"You got him?" Jeff said hopefully.

"The bastard escaped. He fled into the subway. All exits of the city have been shut down, so I need you to tell me now, where would he go?" Ark asked in reply, more to the like of demanding information.

"Is Angel ok?" Don asked, ignoring Ark's demands.

"Answer my question, where would he go?"

"Tell me first, is Angel alright?" Don repeated, undeterred by the Tiger.

Ark was taken back by the question. Not because of the balls it took for that feline to step up like that, but because of the genuine concern in his eyes. He truly cared for the wellbeing of Officer Coldmen.

"She's alive. Banged, bruised, and could be much better, but she's at the hospital now," he said, trying to sound calm.

Don Reynolds looked relieved.

"If he escaped, there's only one place I know of that he would go. An old theme park; construction on the place was never finished. Wild Times. Inside the funhouse, he made himself a little hold. That's where he brought us when he was caught all those years ago," Jeff explained.

"Wild Times. I've heard of it, in the Jungle District. A place for only predators. Funhouse. You boys have done me a great service," he replied, once again trying to sound calm as he started to walk away.

"Wait!" Don shouted, grabbing Arks attention, "Be careful in that place. The funhouse is like a maze. House of mirrors, sliding floors. He's at home there, but you'll by tripping over your own tail."

Without another word, Ark nodded and made his way back out to the main atrium. Nick was there waiting for him.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Jungle District. Wild Times Funhouse. If he's anywhere, he's there."

"Great. I'll notify Francine's group. She can help us out-"

"No! I go in alone. Reynolds is mine," Ark said, before quickly moving out to the car.

Nick didn't even have time to follow before the Police Cruiser pulled out and sped down the road towards the Jungle District. For a few minutes, Nick stood staring at the road, contemplating the intentions of the White Tiger.

"Why would he go in alone?" Nick thought, "That has no advantage. Bringing Reynolds in would be much easier with a larger force. Unless…"

Officer Wilde ran with wide eyes to the nearest cruiser. If he was going to stop Ark from making such a mistake, he would need a voice of reason. Someone who could talk to the anger-driven predator. He would need the sweetest, most convincing and trusted officer on the force. He would need Officer Judy Hopps. The fox rushed to Zootopia General, hoping to god that she was in any condition to help him save the sanity of their friend. Still clad in uniform, Nick entered the hospital and went straight to the front desk, which luckily had no line. The counter was significantly taller than he was, with a Doe behind on the computer.

"Hopps, Judy. How is she doing?" He asked urgently.

The Doe didn't hesitate to quickly tap a few buttons on the computer.

"She's in recovery now. Two fractures ribs, due to be released home in the morning," she explained.

"Bump up her release by order of the Zootopia Police Department," Nick ordered, playing a power card he'd never used before.

"Sir, I can't do that-"

"Do it anyways!" Nick quietly exclaimed, before glancing around and making sure there were no listening ears, "Lives are at stake here. Cops, citizens, and the capture of a Crime Boss who has been at large for almost twenty years. Officer Hopps is the key to bringing it all to a safe close and making this city a safer place, but I need her _now."_

The doe hesitated for a few seconds before the urgency of his words his her. She spent five minutes typing something up, which she printed out and handed to him.

"Room 13B. Give this to the doctor inside, and he'll give you her uniform."

Nick quickly took the paper and jogged to Building B. Following the signs posted on the walls, he made his way to room 13, which was closed. Inside, Nick could hear the voice of Judy speaking to another male voice, which was asking her questions about her condition. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," he heard the Doctor say.

Upon entry, Judy perked up. She was in a hospital gown, and through the arm holes, Nick could see her entire upper torso was wrapped in a tight bandage.

"Nick," Judy said softly.

"Hey, Carrots. How're you feeling?" Nick asked, walking over by her bed.

"I'm doing much better-"

"Sir, visiting hours end at seven thirty. That was fifteen minutes ago," the doctor, a moose, stated.

Nick looked up at him and handed him the paper, "This is a release order for Officer Hopps issued by order of the Zootopia Police Department."

Hearing this, Judy realized that something had to be wrong. The moose took the paper and lifted up his glasses, looking over the document closely.

"Release order? That can't be right, she was supposed to be released tomorrow afternoon," he said, sounding confused.

"I assure you, it is."

"Nick, what's going on?" Judy asked, concern in her voice and worry in her eyes.

"I'll explain in a bit. Doctor, please fetch her uniform. Time is not on our side," Nick requested.

Though he was reluctant, the doctor did as he was asked, leaving to retrieve Judy's outfit. He returned within a few minutes, before leaving again so Judy could get dressed. Nick remained in the room, with his back turned respectfully. He could hear an assortment of zippers and Velcro for a little while before she gave him the clear to turn.

"Alright, so what's going on?" Judy asked, as they exited the room.

"The raid on the compound. We rescued Officer Coldmen," Nick replied.

"That's good. What about Reynolds?"

"He escaped."

"He what?" Judy exclaimed, darting in front of Nick, stopping them in front of another door and preventing them from moving any further.

"There's more. Chief Bogo, he was shot. It went through his vest. He's not doing too well, and Ark has lost it," Nick explained.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean his friend was just shot. He's gone out of his mind, angrier than Bogo has ever been. We have a lead on where Reynolds could be hiding out, but he went alone. I think Ark is going to kill him," he said.

Judy's ears dropped, "oh my god."

 **Diddly-doo-dah-day! Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2017 is proving really fun for all of you so far. How many more chapters could there be to this story, I wonder…leave a review!**


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